Three days after the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline, the Patriots are releasing veteran safety Jabrill Peppers in a surprise move, a source confirmed to the Herald.
Peppers once projected to start for New England, having spent most of training camp with the first-team defense. The 29-year-old safety did take several snaps in the team’s preseason finale last week against the Giants, a decision coach Mike Vrabel explained by saying the coaching staff wanted him to get reps with fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson, another projected starter.
“Pep’s played a couple of different spots and I wanted to just see him play safety alongside Craig,” Vrabel said on Aug. 21. “He’s played some nickel, he’s played some in-the-box on third down, he’s played in different places and tonight where we wanted to see him was alongside Craig playing safety exclusively.”
Over the past two seasons, Peppers started all 21 games he appeared in for the Patriots. He snatched a career-high two interceptions and forced a fumble around 78 tackles in 2023, his best season in New England. Last summer, the team signed him to a 3-year, $24 million contract extension and he was named a team captain, but a domestic violence charge kept Peppers off the field for most of the 2024 season.
Peppers was acquitted of multiple assault charges in January, three months after he was arrested following a confrontation with a woman at his Braintree home.
In January, he told reporters: “I had to be quiet for three month. This was all I could think about, and this is the first time in my life where football wasn’t the most important thing on my mind. I had to just sit through everyone pouring dirt on my name, everybody for the most part thinking that I actually did these things. … To me, crimes against children and women are the most egregious things that you can do. To be accused of that, it just hurt.”
Peppers had $4.32 million guaranteed left on his contract and will leave a $4 million dead cap hit on the team’s books, per Over the Cap.
Peppers leaves behind Woodson, veteran Jaylinn Hawkins, Kyle Dugger, second-year backup Dell Pettus and special teamer Brenden Schooler in the safeties room.
ESPN first reported Peppers’ release.
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