ALL TWENTY-TUESDAY: WHAT IS JABRILL PEPPERS?

He’s a safety, right? Well, he’s played mostly linebacker as a starter. But he’s much more electric with the ball in his hands. Have you seen him on special teams? Make him a running back. No, he needs more space, he could be a slot wide receiver. No way, he was a five-star cornerback out of high school. He has to play defense, right?

Over the course of the last year, I’ve heard each of those sentences and thought processes expressed too many times to count when referencing Michigan’s DB/LB/ATH Jabrill Peppers. It seemed as though everyone had questions of Peppers, even those who like him as a draft prospect, but on one knew how to really answer them. Even in articles that I’ve read that explain what people like about him, the tape didn’t match the explanation, or it carried a weight of “what if” that was too heavy for my justification of him going in the first round of the NFL Draft.

We’ve heard all kinds of comparisons for Peppers. Some think he’s the next Tyrann Mathieu, but Peppers never had the production that Mathieu had, even as an aggressive defensive back. I’ve also heard Deone Bucannon and Shaq Thompson. Players that played safety in college, but have move to more of a linebacker role in the NFL. However, those two are much bigger in size and play more true linebacker than Peppers did even as a hybrid. What I’ve learned over the years is that, if there’s not a close NFL comparison, and no good way to explain where a prospect wins in the NFL, chances are they won’t. That’s what I thought about Peppers.

But, I was wrong – or, better yet, not yet enlightened.

Brett Kollmann does a series of prospects breakdown for the NFL draft on video over on his YouTube channel. He also does breakdowns during the season for some of the big NFL match ups. So if you’re into video breakdowns, give him a follow. I used his video of Peppers as a base for what I’m about to explain.

When I stumbled upon his breakdown video of Peppers I felt like I was really understanding what I was watching when I looked at the tape. Kollmann even admitted that during the season he was not impressed with Peppers either. He figured the move to linebacker was a coaching request, so he didn’t hold it to much against him, but even when playing linebacker he thought Peppers was more of a presence than an impact (as did I). But after Peppers blew up the Combine, Kollmann said he had to go back to the tape and try to put together his athleticism with what we saw, even if it was at an unnatural position.  The new view he had on Peppers is one that I really got behind, and for the first time I thought I was really watching who Peppers could be beyond his unique circumstances at Michigan.

Edge Protector, Not An Edge Defender

In order to understand Peppers best you have to address the negative narratives he has around him first. In order to do this, we have to go back to Michigan’s 2015 team.

Before the team moved Peppers down into the box in that hybrid linebacker/nickel corner spot, the Wolverines were lacking speed from their second-level players (linebackers). As a result, on plays that carried out mostly successful blocks to the edge of the tackles and to the outside, even if unblocked, Michigan’s linebacker simply did not have the speed to get to the edge and force a ball carrier inside or out of bounds for minimal gains. That’s where Peppers came into play in 2016.

When you look at Michigan’s statistics during the year, you’ll see that their defense was incredibly stout, and a big reason for that was because they trusted their defensive backs to play man-on-man for a short period of time, they knew their defensive line was going to be disruptive, and finally, because they knew they had Peppers to contain the edge. Peppers playing in that role freed the defensive linemen to go all out, and it allow the defensive backs to only worry about the man in front of them. 

That last sentence is the key when watching Peppers’ tape ready to criticize what you see. As Kollmann mentioned in his video, it’s about understanding what a player’s role is, not just the position he plays when evaluating draft prospects – Ohio State linebacker Raekwon McMillian recently called out someone on Twitter who was trying to criticize one of his plays because he didn’t understand the concept role. 

I’d like to think I can identify schemes are roles pretty well for most players, but I was still blind when watching Peppers until this realization. The truth of his tape is that Peppers was asked to move into the box, not to play linebacker in the sense that we think, but rather to protect the edge in a specific role.

(GIF via Kollmann)

In the play above, it’s not Peppers’ job to take the ball carrier, per se, it’s his job to make sure the back doesn’t go to the outside. This is often confused when he either takes on blocks or just doesn’t seem to take the right angle. That’s because his job first and foremost wasn’t that of an edge defender, but more of an edge protector.

(GIF via Kollmann)

The next play above was another example of that. Originally, I thought I was looking at a player who was too tackle-for-loss happy who tried to bend the edge around a tight end to get to the backfield. But, I was wrong. It was actually Peppers doing his job. Because of Peppers’ placement and impact, teams had a much more difficult time running the ball, not only to the outside, but also up the middle because him protecting that edge allowed the defensive line to be more effective collapsing the middle. Michigan knew that their defensive line was so powerful that if they kept plays between the hashes by using Peppers as a threat, the advantage was to them more often than not. So, Peppers often looked like the scapegoat in a great team-centric strategy.

So, what about in coverage? Peppers still looked suspect there, but knowing Peppers’ primary role as an edge protector actually helps us understand that better, too.

(GIF via Kollmann)

Peppers often lined up in these weird half linebacker, half nickel corner areas of the field when in coverage and it really hung him out to dry tape-wise. In the play above, Peppers was caught in zone coverage with a slot wide receiver who was running a post route and a half back out of the backfield who was going to the flats. Not only is it really easy to look at this play and think it might be blown coverage on Peppers’ part, but it’s also easy to think that he’s just indecisive, a trait that would linger negatively beyond just one play. But, the fact of the matter is, neither of those things are true. 

Peppers freezing at his spot was actually the “best” he could do. Michigan’s defense is designed to work through a series of “help” phases. Defensive backs get help from both linebackers and safeties at different places of the field or route in a triangle concept. Because of this, Peppers’ tape is filled with him in no-man’s land like in the play above. But, if we remember that it’s Peppers’ first priority to keep the edge in front of him, you now know why it appears he’s being indecisive. Really he’s just trying to make his passing zone coverage appear as big as he can, knowing he had that athleticism to catch the running back at any point.

HUMBLE.

To bring a little break in the action, it was pretty dang noble of Peppers to basically sell out his draft stock when taking on this position – and it’s also pretty impressive of the culture they have up in Michigan, too. When we got the chance to talk to him at the NFL Scouting Combine, I was actually really impressed with him. He was honest with the criticism he had, but also confident in his abilities. Now we have a better idea as to why. He cared about Michigan’s success more than his own. He had the confidence in himself to be able to succeed in the NFL, even if the role his coach asked him to take on was one that wouldn’t get him drafted as high. That’s pretty rare, if you ask me.

Peppers’ best work is when he can use his athleticism one-on-one with offensive players, particularly receivers, and in this role he accepted to play in 2016, he barely did any of that. Instead, he had to be the scapegoat on the edge during run plays and often just a decoy or “threat” player in a layered zone defense on passing plays. This helps answer why the production was so far down for a player with Peppers athletic traits. I’m not saying if in a more definitive role he would have had Tyrann Mathieu-like college production, but it certainly wouldn’t be as empty as we see it now.

The New Age DB

Finally, let’s look at the few plays where Peppers was able to show off what he does best: cover one-on-one.

(GIF via Kollmann)

When Peppers was asked to play in man coverage you really got a chance to see his athleticism shine. In the five games of Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Colorado, Peppers only gave up two catches (according to Kollmann) and was really only “beat” on a handful of plays when asked to go one-on-one, most of which were against OSU’s Curtis Samuel, who is a first round pick himself.

(GIF via Kollmann)

Because he was still lined up in that middle area, he was asked to cover tight ends, running backs and slot receiver when in man coverage, and honestly, he did a pretty good job with all of them. You can tell he’s very raw in coverage technique wise, but the athleticism is obvious. Peppers shows the ability to flip his hips on a dime, and shows good recovery speed to catch up with receivers. He also has the strength to work through contact.

So, where do we play Peppers in the NFL? Even though his tape isn’t as damning as I once believed, he still played most of his starting years on defense in a position that he won’t survive at in the NFL since he was also asked to take on offensive linemen at times (he can’t do this).

It’s natural to think that with a player who blitzes, has experience playing in the box but doesn’t necessarily have the size to be a linebacker would be an easy peg to safety, but I actually prefer him at a different spot. Playing safety still requires top notch instincts, and I would be wary to trust a player at a safety spot in the NFL who hasn’t really played the position at all.

Wolverines LB Julius Peppers and Ben Gedeon and DE Taco Charlton – Photo by: Getty Images

Instead, I believe Peppers is a starting nickel cornerback in the NFL – and yes, nickel corner is a starting position in today’s age. I believe that playing Peppers in a man-coverage nickel corner role would get the most out of his abilities because he’s shown traits to be able to cover bigger or faster receivers from the slot, and blitz with the best of them from the defensive back group. I actually think it’s sometimes harder to play nickel corner than it is any other position on the defense since teams are often using their best receivers in the middle to give them more space.

Peppers has all the tools to be one of the league’s best nickel corner, if he develops. Not even outside corner can play nickel, and vice versa. It take a special set of skills to do both. Peppers shows a high ceiling for an inside defensive back.

As the NFL adapts to tight ends becoming the go-to offensive mismatch weapons, defenses will have to adjust. In time, I think Peppers has the natural ability to be a good counter to most slot mismatches.

As strange as this is for me to say, I think a defense like the Buccaneers would actually be a good spot for Peppers, if he were to be played in a man coverage nickel corner role, rather than a strong safety role. If drafted, Vernon Hargreaves could move to outside corner full time (which he had much more success with) and Peppers could play the nickel position where Hargreaves, at times, failed. There were times when the Bucs asked their nickel corner to be in man coverage, but there were also times where they played that spot in zone. I’m not sure which is the preferred method of coverage form the staff since they moved Hargreaves around so much and the depth behind him got thin, but if they can play out of scheme that allows Peppers to stay in mostly man coverage on the inside with occasional zone looks that allow him to blitz, it could make a lot of sense schematically.

Alternatively, Peppers could also succeed in a defense that plays a single-high Cover 1. In this situation, Peppers wouldn’t be the single-high safety. He would be the nickel corner or strong safety that is playing man coverage on the slot player at the line of scrimmage while the two outside corners are playing man coverage, too. What I wouldn’t want him to do is play strong safety in a scheme that played more Cover 2 or Cover 4. That’s not getting the most of him. Let him play man coverage as a nickel corner for an aggressive defense and be more athletic than slot players are used to.

Though he’s a potential fit for the Buccaneers, his draft stock may never let that dream become a reality. The question always remains: What’s the price?