Breakout year for Jabrill Peppers is a coming
I have a friend who works for the Cleveland Browns in an executive/administrative capacity. As such he's privy to information not generally available to people outside the organization as he's connected with some of the scouts and other employees of the team. He doesnt tell me much (he cant) but he also knows I went to Michigan (he went to OSU) and he called me this morning to share a little story about JP he had recently heard in the building. And yes, he said it was ok if I shared it.
It seems that at the beginning of the season last year our DC Greg Williams had a one-on-one with Peppers and told him what his role with the Browns would be in 2017. That he would play Free Safety and because Williams would be blitzing a lot he would be lining him up so far off the LOS people would think he was in a punt return formation. Williams told him he was doing so to keep 15 yard gains from becoming 60 yard gains when the blitz didnt get home. And according to my contact he also told him he was doing this cause JP was the only player in the Browns secondary he trusted and that fans & media would crush him over it cause Williams knew this wasnt Jabrill's strength.
According to my contact as the horrible 2017 season wore on Peppers never once complained about his role and never asked to be moved closer to the LOS despite all the negaive press he was getting and this impressed the hell out of the Browns coaching staff. He said the #1 reason the Browns moved Kizer to Green Bay for Damarious Randall was to move Peppers to Strong Safety and have him playing back in the box for the Browns this year where they can turn him loose and let him play more aggressively. He said the Browns defensive staff is expecting a lot from Peppers this coming year and plan to move him all over field in an effort to maximize his talents and really get the most out of what he can do on the football field.
I know I'm biased as hell on this issue - both regarding the Browns and Peppers but I am very fired up thinking about Cleveland using JP this way and havoc he will create.
I'm shocked they would use Peppers the wrong way last year...oh wait, you said Browns. Nevermind.
when he basically just admits outright that his system doesn’t fit the players and he expects it to fail?
~ every Vikes fan, everywhere
Don Brown wouldn't do that.
All I can think about is when Woodson won DPoY for Green Bay. I'll take that any year!!!
Jabril will have to learn how to cover people first as that was a bit of a strength for Woodson.
At 0-16, you can see how well it worked.
If this is the case then I just got a steal trading for him in my dynasty league for a 4th rounder.
Now hoping to snap Hurst in the 6th!
If this is the case then I just got a steal trading for him in my dynasty league for a 4th rounder.
Now hoping to snag Hurst in the 6th!
But the Jabrill Peppers is so deep he's on a boat in Lake Erie memes made me laugh every time. Browns gonna Browns.
Wow you figured out how to use Browns and fired up in the same sentence. Next, you should tackle solving cancer.
I'm fired up that my favorite team is playing the Browns this week. I think we'll win by 2 touchdowns.
Nobody can have a good year on the Browns.
I miss that guy. Such a bad mother fucker.
You just have to find a way to drop an F bomb in every post. Must be an Aussie thing
I'm pulling for the guy. For whatever reason I still am frequently reminded how he was supposed to be 6'1" like Woodson. But, at the combine he measured in at 5;10" like Denard. I don't know why but we spent a lot of time arguing over his height and I remember this.
As a defensive player, Peppers has always been overrated by Michigan fans. Hudson has already made more big plays than Peppers ever did.
False, actually, but NBD.
That you Buamgardner?
You can’t put a counting stat on JP’s versatility or the pressure he put on opposing offenses having to account for all the things he could do. He also completely obliterated opponent’s screen game, something Michigan sorely missed last season.
Sam, every Peppers defender points to him blowing up screens as if that makes him this irreplaceable defensive god. He was excellent at blowing through WR and TE blocks and getting to the screen receiver. He's a very good blitzer situationally. Now what else on defense is he excellent at?
Peppers is a fantastic athlete and excellent blitzer. ProFootballFocus pointed out a bunch of holes in his game after his final season, though. He has linebacker skills in a safety body. Lewis was by far the best defensive player in their final year at UM and should have been DPOY. Ohio State made a point of running at him whenever they could and it worked out well. He's not big enough to take on olinemen and can't cover to save his life. He's really a situational player and I'm flat out shocked when UM fans compare him to Woodson who is one of the best defensive players of all time. Peppers can't do a third of what Woodson could.
Respectfully disagree.
Michigan won the game in 16, OSU fan Bobby Sagers overturned it.
If that's how you feel, I'm good with it, but it still doesn't refute anything I said about Peppers.
It amazes me that Michigan fans feel this way about Peppers. I remember watching him change games and be all over the field. Maybe you were watching something else.
Most of Peppers’ dynamic plays came as a return man and running back.
Lol no. Maybe you missed him making stops on defense every game.
For example? He had 119 total tackles in three years at UM. That's not really that many stops, even factoring in his lack of snaps freshman year.
There's no denying that deploying Peppers in Ashtabula during the first half and Westlake-on-Avon in the second half often had us play 10-on-11 and Peppers himself didn't always take great angles because he's not best used as a free safety. Thing is, that at the end of the day, someone's gotta be free safety and prevent literally every completed pass of 10+ yards from being a TD. And when the roster was basically 60% scarecrows last year, you put your best and most instinctual athlete out there to fill an unglamourous but necessary stopgap to keep what was frankly a tire-fire squad from becoming a raging inferno of suck.
Was it a winning strategy? Checks record. No, it wasn't. It was still the least bad option and given where the Browns were at that point, it's all you can ask.
That's illogical. It’s only the least bad option if you’re thinking solely about the 2017 season—which CLE shouldn’t have been, since the team was going to suck no matter what.
Given that Peppers is one of their top assets, they should’ve been prioritizing his development by playing him where he belongs.
Most of us from Michigan are Lions fans and we need the Browns to always be terrible so we're not alone as the only non-expansion team to never make the SuperBowl. Definitely want JP to have a monster year, but would be pleased with another 0-16 coming out of Cleveland.
From 1999 on the Browns have been an expansion team. Had an expansion draft and all. In reality, they had it much worse off than the expansion Jags and Panthers, but that's what happens to the Browns. Sorry, Lions fans.
After 19 seasons, they're not an expansion team, just a poorly run team. Literally every player in the league who was active during their expansion year is gone now, so whatever handicaps they faced then, they're completely irrelevant now.
The Browns were an expansion team 19 years ago. They haven't been an expansion team for well over a decade. They just suck.
Good for Jabrill. Hope he gets the hell out of Cleveland ASAP. The only franchise worse than the Lions.
It sounds like your friend and the Browns organization are desperate to get ticket sales up with a little JP hype.
Why can’t anybody put him at running back where he belongs?
It's good to hear that they're going to start using him correctly, but man, Williams is an idiot. Peppers is a truly gifted player in the box, but average at best playing centerfield.
The Browns allowed 57 plays of 20 yards or more last season, and Peppers only made the tackle on 12 of them. In other words, Williams sacrificed a season of Peppers creating havoc for the sake of 12 tackles, most of which probably could have been made by an average free safety.
So what you're really saying is that Gregg Williams is as fucking dumb as I thought he was.
I have him in a dynasty fantasy league and i didnt cut him because i knew this was a comin'
We could have used him in a bowl game
So you are saying the Browns will go 1-15 this year? Definitely an improvement.
on who the Browns are targeting with the 2019 first overall draft pick.
Shea Patterson
More like Rashan Gary
I’m with you MGro, Tyrod, Carlos Hyde, Chubb, Duke Johnson , Gordon, Landry and a really good oline. We’re gonna have a pretty damn good offense and the defense will be average
then again... why?
I'm pumped about this post.
I was ecstatic for Brandon's strip of Brady.
If it's Maize and Blue I'm with you.
If it's yellow be mellow.
...
I wish JP the best. Great post...best one in months.
Hope he lights the world on fire