On Friday, it was announced the Patriots planned to release safety Jabrill Peppers and like always, fans immediately started petitioning for their team to make the move and sign the soon to be free agent. Unlike most times, Peppers makes sense for the Raiders and he does so in a lot of ways.
The Raiders have an interesting safety room, they lost Trevon Moehrig, and added a bunch of veterans including Jeremy Chinn, Terrell Edmunds, Lonnie Johnson, and recently Tristin McCollum. All of those safeties
stand at least 6’2 with Chinn 6’4 and McCollum 6’3 so Peppers doesn’t fully fit the same size requirements at only 5’11. However, the Seahawks under Pete Carroll weren’t as advantageous about their safeties heights as he is with cornerback (see Earl Thomas being 5’10).
Peppers is coming off three straight seasons with the Patriots where he’s performed well. Injuries have been a problem as Peppers only played 229 snaps in 2021, 398 in 2022, and 372 in 2024 with 955 in 2023. That does lead to a little concern about how productive Peppers can be over the course of a season, assuming he can stay healthy of course. Despite injuries, Peppers has graded out well via PFF with overall grades of 75, 87.3, and 82.3 in that span while his coverage grade has been 83.2 and 81.7 in 2023 and 2024 respectively. His run defense grade, 84.6, 90.7, and 74.7 all of which are good marks. Basing off his most recent full year of play time, in 2023, the soon to be 30 year old safety logged 78 tackles, 5 TFL, 2 interceptions, 8 breakups, a forced fumble, and a sack. In coverage, Peppers allowed an exceptional 52.6 QBR and added 28 stops with only a 11% missed tackle rate. In 2024, Peppers allowed a 39.2 QBR added nine stops, a 4% missed tackle rate and put up 40 tackles, 3 TFL, an INT, 2 PBU, and 1 FF in those limited snaps.
Obviously the injures are a risk, and Las Vegas has already lost Lonnie Johnson for at least a third of the season with a fractured fibula so Peppers staying healthy would be a massive question mark. Despite the questions surrounding his health, Peppers would easily be the Raiders best coverage safety, and likely best coverage defender across the board. The former New York Giant (under Patrick Graham and Rob Leonard as well) only has allowed a QBR over 100 three time in his career, 2017 and 2018 with the Browns and 2021 with the Giants. During his time with Graham in New York (2020-2021), Peppers posted 120 tackles, 12 TFL, an INT, 12 PBU, a FF, 4.5 sacks, 54 stops, and logged an 84.5 QBR allowed. Graham deployed Peppers in a variety of roles playing him at SS for about 70% of the time, FS 20%, and NCB the remaining 10%.
With the Raiders, they currently look to deploy Jeremy Chinn at strong safety, Isaiah Pola-Mao at free safety, and in the times Chinn rotates down to the box as a nickel corner/linebacker they’ll slide one of Tristin McCollum or Chris Smith at SS (Terrell Edmunds could as well, assuming he’s elevated off the practice squad for the game). When in Seattle, Pete Carroll’s Seahawks deployed three safety sets nearly 60% of the time he was running their defense, and that trend likely won’t change in 2025 with the Raiders. Additionally, Raiders DC Patrick Graham has deployed three safety sets in nearly 40% of his career defensive snaps as defensive coordinator, making the plan a highly effective and likely strategy for Las Vegas.
If the Raiders choose to go out and sign Peppers, they can run Jeremy Chinn in the nickel for majority of his reps with Peppers and Pola-Mao rotating between the free and strong safety roles depending on how the offense lines up and their personnel. Chinn has performed extremely well in a nickel backer role, playing some man coverage out of the slot with the Commanders last season, and Chinn did show promise being able to run with TE and WRs downfield. Las Vegas will limit their times in man coverage, and like a Pete Carroll/Patrick Graham defense live out of cover three. Chinn’s run defense can be utilized when playing near the LOS while also effectively allowing the Raiders to just run 2 traditional corners instead of adding a slot option on the field too. The Raiders want to play physical football on the defensive side, and they also want the ability to mix and match, as evident by their inside linebackers and defensive line. Jabrill Peppers gives the Raiders the ability to eliminate their weakness at CB and also buy into the physical playstyle they look to impose. A potential defense could look like:
Field End: Maxx Crosby
DT: Adam Butler
DT: JJ Pegues OR Tonka Hemingway OR Jonah Laulu OR Thomas Booker OR Leki Fotu (NT)
Boundary End: Malcolm Koonce
ILB: Germaine Pratt
ILB: Elandon Roberts OR Jamal Adams OR Devin White
Nickel WLB: Jeremy Chinn
CB: Eric Stokes
CB: Darien Porter OR Kyu Blu Kelly (NCB when no NWLB) OR Decamarion Richardson
Field SAF: Isaiah Pola-Mao
Bound SAF: Jabrill Peppers (Jeremy Chinn, when in 3 CB Nickel Sets)
