Over the last two seasons, Jabrill Peppers got a little taste of the “Patriot Way” playing under head coach Joe Judge with the Giants.
When he hit free agency this offseason, that taste had the former first-round safety wanting to get the full experience playing for Bill Belichick in New England.
“It’s no secret to the dynasty that New England has been. I wanted to come learn from Bill,” Peppers said in a Zoom call with local reporters. “It’s familiarity with the system as I played for a couple of his decedents and Joe Judge, I have familiarity there. I love Joe. He came back to New England. I wanted to come join him. Now we’re here and I’m just excited to learn from some of the best coaches in the game and be implemented wherever they need me.”
As Peppers noted, his defensive coordinator with the Giants was Patrick Graham, another former Belichick assistant in New England. That knowledge of the core scheme, the affinity for Judge and a desire to play for Belichick came together with Peppers signing a one-year deal with the Patriots as he recovers from surgery to repair a partially torn ACL suffered last season.
“Me and Joe, we had a great relationship. Obviously I wanted to continue that. He was here. Me wanting to play for Bill. Overall just the culture, man. Wanting to come learn from the best coaches in the game. They like a three-safety look. They know how to use multiples and I’m already familiar with the system. So I thought it was a no-brainer,” Peppers declared.
As the veteran of five NFL seasons alluded to, he joins a somewhat crowded Patriots safety mix. Devin McCourty (94 percent), Adrian Phillips (82) and Kyle Dugger (68) all played at least two-thirds of New England’s defensive snaps in 2021. Meanwhile Peppers has started 59 of the 61 games he’s played in his NFL career.
“I just want to be a guy to come in here and add to that, compete with those guys and make it hard on the coaches to put the best guys on the field, have different packages, things like that,” Peppers said. “I definitely think it’s a good thing we can all compete with each other, piggyback off each other. You have guys that have played a lot of ball in this league. Even though Dug is young he’s played a lot of ball in this league. Then we all lean on D-Mac. He’s seen it all. I’m just excited, man, to be able to come into that room and play with those guys and compete with those guys. I definitely think it’s going to be good.
“I think I’m a tough, hard-nosed, hard worker. I still think that my best ball is ahead of me. But I think I’ll fit in pretty well with how the guys work here, the mindset, how they play. I’m definitely not worried about that.”
And as Peppers noted a number of times, he is certainly not worried about how the Belichick-led coaching staff will put it all together in the back end of the defense, because that’s really a big part of why the talented, versatile safety brought his talents to New England.
“I’m just looking forward to learning,” Peppers said of playing for Belichick. “He’s seen a lot of ball. He’s coached in a lot of eras.
I’m just more so excited to pick his brain, see things how he sees it. Curious to see how he watches film, how he breaks down the opposing offenses, just things like that, that really stuck out to me. Then playing for people who coached in this system made it a no-brainer for me as well.”
