Peppers is poised to have a big season

The Carolina Panthers will hold their annual Fan Fest scrimmage this morning at Bank of America Stadium.

It'll be the first chance for Panthers' fans who haven't made the trek to Spartanburg, S.C., during the first week of training camp to see the old Julius Peppers in action.

Or is that the new Julius Peppers?

Or is that Just Like His Old Self New Julius Peppers?

Call it what you will. But in the early stages of training camp, it has appeared that Peppers more resembles the player who went to the Pro Bowl in 2004, 2005 and 2006 than the player who puzzled everyone with his lackluster play last season.

The Panthers have moved Peppers from left defensive end, where he played his first six seasons, to the right side, where Mike Rucker had been entrenched until retiring in the off-season. Right end is where Peppers played in college at North Carolina and where he feels more natural.

Peppers also seems to have regained his strength after noticeably lacking energy at times last season. He missed parts of training camp last August with an undisclosed illness that has never been clarified, but whatever it was, it seems to be a thing of the past.

Teammate Jordan Gross is one who has been impressed with Peppers in training camp. Gross has been matched against Peppers often in practice, and he sees a big difference.

"I'll say this with 100 percent confidence, I think he's going to have his best year ever," Gross said. "He's better than I've ever seen him. Barring anything unknown, there's no reason he won't go out and set records. He looks really, really good."

Gross has gone through a position switch of his own, moving from right tackle to left tackle. So he went up against Peppers in camp last year and in previous seasons and sees how the position switch has helped Peppers.

"I know he really enjoys being on the defensive right side," Gross said. "I think it's a bit of a new challenge for him. He's been training all off-season. I've talked to him as much as he'll talk, and he said he just feels stronger, faster, bigger than ever."

Position change is welcome

The reference to Peppers' reluctance to talk is interesting.

Peppers spoke to reporters who regularly cover the team on Thursday night, for the first time since last December. Even then, it was with conditions, because he remains uncomfortable in front of television cameras and uncomfortable talking about himself in front of teammates. That's just part of his unassuming personality.

The session lasted about five minutes.

He continued to say, as he has in the past, that the preseason illness had no impact on his performance last season. But he didn't downplay his disappointment with the season. In 14 games before missing the last two with a knee injury, he had 55 tackles and just 2½ sacks -- far and away the worst sack total of his career. He had 13 sacks in 2006, and 34½ over the previous three seasons.

"Looking back, it's not a secret it was a disappointing year, not only stats-wise, but even to my personal standards," Peppers said. "I did some self-evaluating, and I think I made the necessary adjustments as far as conditioning and getting ready to come back this year."

The conditioning, he said, has been different. The Panthers continue to list him at 6-7, 283 pounds, as they did last year, but appearances suggest he is stronger, if not bigger.

"I feel better this year," he said. "I feel a little stronger, a little more powerful and fast and quicker, because I've really focused on being better in all areas. Not in one particular thing. I just want to be better everywhere, overall. I put a lot of time and effort into getting in shape and being ready to come to camp."

He said that he welcomed the position change and will benefit from it.

"I'm comfortable over there on the right side," he said. "The left-handed stance is my natural stance. The left hand is my strong hand. So I have a lot more moves and power available to that side."

There's one other reason he should be motivated to bounce back strong. Several million reasons, actually.

He is in the final year of the seven-year contract he signed as a rookie, a contract that has paid him more than $50 million thanks to incentive clauses. He'll be a free agent next seasont.

Indianapolis' Dwight Freeney set the current pay-scale bar for elite defensive ends when he signed a six-year, $72 million contract last year that included a $30 million signing bonus.

Peppers said that negotiations are "ongoing" but that he wasn't thinking about contract matters and would not discuss them publicly.

"What we have discussed, we both came to the agreement we were going to keep that private," he said.

He ducked the issue of his future when asked point-blank if he wanted to stay with the Panthers long term.

"What I've learned over these last six years that I've been here is that year to year it's unpredictable what happens with players and contracts," he said.

"Right now I'm worried about playing football. I'm not looking forward to (2009) or after that.

"I've got to get focused on making it happen right now.... I have a contract to play football right now.

"After this season, that's a different story. But my focus, as a football player, I can only control what I can control."

So far, he has seemed to be back in control on the field.

■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.