Three days after the NFL\u2019s 53-man roster deadline, the Patriots are releasing veteran safety Jabrill Peppers in a surprise move, a source confirmed to the Herald.<\/p>\n
Peppers once projected to start for New England, having spent most of training camp with the first-team defense. League sources indicated Peppers was not shopped around the league prior to his release, and certainly not to the extent the Patriots made fellow safety Kyle Dugger available. Like Dugger, Peppers\u2019 role diminished toward the end of the summer, though he was never relegated to scout-team duty.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old safety took several snaps in the team\u2019s preseason finale last week against the Giants, a decision coach Mike Vrabel explained by saying the coaching staff wanted him to get reps with rookie safety Craig Woodson, another projected starter.<\/p>\n
\u201cPep\u2019s played a couple of different spots, and I wanted to just see him play safety alongside Craig,\u201d Vrabel said on Aug. 21. \u201cHe\u2019s played some nickel(back), he\u2019s played some in-the-box on third down, he\u2019s played in different places. And tonight where we wanted to see him was alongside Craig, playing safety exclusively.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 domestic violence and drug charges kept Peppers off the field for most of the ensuing.<\/p>\n
Peppers was acquitted of all assault charges in January, three months after his arrest following a late-night confrontation with a woman at his Braintree home.<\/p>\n
In January, he told reporters: \u201cI 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\u2019t 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. \u2026 To me, crimes against children and women are the most egregious things that you can do. To be accused of that, it just hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to reports, Peppers was not cut because of a new off-field incident. Peppers had $4.32 million guaranteed left on his contract and will leave a $4 million dead cap hit on the team\u2019s books, per Over the Cap. The move frees up just over $1 million in cap space for the Patriots.<\/p>\n
Peppers leaves behind Woodson, Jaylinn Hawkins, Kyle Dugger, second-year backup Dell Pettus and special teamer Brenden Schooler in the safeties room. Dugger was one of the last players to make the 53-man roster on Tuesday, per sources. The Patriots couldn\u2019t find a taker in trade talks and were unwilling to eat enough of his contract for Dugger\u2019s top suitor, according to a source.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible Peppers\u2019 contract factored into the decision to release him, as well as his diminished role and fit in the Patriots\u2019 new culture. Vrabel has released several players who had prominent roles in past regimes. All six captains from last year\u2019s team \u2014 including Peppers \u2014 are now gone.<\/p>\n
The Patriots have also undergone a significant scheme change, which forced Peppers, Dugger and outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings \u2014 who was also shopped \u2014 to embrace different playing styles. For example, neither Peppers nor Dugger are regarded as strong defenders in man-to-man coverage, a common assignment for safeties in Vrabel\u2019s defense. Jennings, meanwhile, is a hard-nose run-stopper with 5.5 career sacks who must know rush upfield and create disruption instead of setting the edge.<\/p>\n
The Patriots have one open roster spot heading into the holiday weekend. ESPN first reported Peppers and the team were parting ways.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three days after the NFL\u2019s 53-man roster deadline, the Patriots are releasing veteran safety Jabrill Peppers in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,7899,249,6,208,834],"class_list":{"0":"post-327237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jabrill-peppers","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-patriots","13":"tag-patriots-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115113764530256183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}