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Calvin Johnson or Julius Peppers?

It was originally a question posed by Slvrgun in the comments of another post that I then posed on Twitter. If given the choice between the next Calvin Johnson or the next Julius Peppers at pick seven, which would you take for the Jaguars?

Now this is a purely hypothetical question that isn't based at all on the prospects on this year's draft. While a defensive end of Peppers-quality may be in the draft, I seriously doubt there's any wide receiver that will have the impact that Calvin Johnson has had for the Lions. But in this hypothetical scenario the assumption is that you're selecting between players that will have the exact impact that Johnson and Peppers have had during their careers.

While defensive end is traditionally considered to be more of a premium position than wide receiver, players like Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald come around very rarely and have a huge impact offensively as they draw double teams away from other receivers and force teams to respect the pass and take defenders away from the run.

That said, it's virtually impossible to eliminate the impact of an elite defensive end and they can produce and affect a defense no matter what, while the performance of a receiver can be very dependent upon the quality of the quarterback.

Given the choice, I would likely choose Peppers in most scenarios, but for the Jaguars I would have to go with Johnson.