Now that the NFL draft has come and gone and nobody offered the Carolina Panthers a trade for Peppers, the four-time Pro Bowl defensive end must make a decision.

Does he want to play for the Panthers?

While Peppers surely would love it the Panthers rescinded the franchise tag and allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, that's not going to happen.

So unless Peppers' camp finds another team willing to give up two first-round picks in next year's draft, the four-time Pro Bowler has little left to decide other than whether he really meant what he said about not playing for the Panthers.

The Panthers open a three-day minicamp on Friday (May 1), although Peppers is not expected to show.

After his agent couldn't get a trade to materialize, Peppers might realize his best option is simply to tuck his tail between his legs and return to the Panthers and try the free-agent route again next year. It's hard to imagine the Panthers putting the franchise tag on him again and paying him more even more -- a staggering $20 million - for the 2010 season.

Look for Peppers to wait this thing out, still hoping to be traded.

It's hard to imagine him being in Charlotte this week, or for the three

-week OTA's in June or even for the start of training camp in late July. As one veteran Carolina player who wished to remain anonymous said, "I highly doubt he'll show up until after the padded work is complete. Why would he? He doesn't have to."

Of course, we don't know that for sure.

After all, you never do with Peppers, who is one of the more distant players ever to set foot in the Carolina locker room.

Peppers said in the past he doesn't like the idea of holding out as a manner of conducting business. So the logical conclusion is eventually he'll cave and show at some point during training camp. And it shouldn't be too hard for him to swallow his pride when the Panthers are writing him checks worth more than $1 million per game.

Still, Peppers has a strong will and he could choose to sit out the season, regardless of what general manager Marty Hurney thinks Peppers will do. That move would be pure stubbornness.