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Seven years after leaving Carolina, Julius Peppers has decided to return. 

The defensive end’s agent announced on Friday that Peppers will be signing with Carolina. The move comes roughly 15 years after the Panthers made Peppers the No. 2 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft. 

Although Peppers is 37 years old, he doesn’t seem to have slowed down much over the past few years. As a member of the Packers from 2014 through 2016, Peppers played in all 48 of Green Bay’s regular season games and started in 43 of those. 

The ironman also started in all 16 regular season games during each of his four seasons with the Chicago Bears (2010-14). 

In Carolina, Peppers will be reunited with defensive end Charles Johnson, who he played with during Johnson’s first three seasons with the Panthers (2007-09). After re-signing with the Panthers his week, Johnson actually made a plea to Peppers to return to Carolina. 

“From a personal opinion and as a friend of his, I just want to see him retire as a Panther,” Johnson said earlier this week, via the Charlotte Observer. “I just think him coming back for a year and retiring as a Panther, what better career for him to have, retiring in his home?”

After being selected with the second-overall pick in 2002, Peppers spent eight seasons in Carolina, where he racked up 81 of his 143.5 career sacks. If Peppers can add 7.5 sacks to his career total in 2017 -- which wouldn’t be crazy because that’s how many he tallied in Green Bay last season -- then he’d move into No. 4 on the NFL’s all-time sack list. 

Currently, Peppers ranks fifth on that list behind four Hall of Famers: Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Greene and Chris Doleman.

Peppers has recorded at least seven sacks in 14 of his 15 NFL seasons. 

With the Panthers, the nine-time Pro Bowler and 2002 Defensive Rookie of the Year will try to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2004. Although Peppers wasn’t a part of the Panthers team that lost 24-10 to the Broncos in Super Bowl 50, he was a part of the team that lost 32-29 to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII.