Jabrill Peppers

Following the retirement of of Devin McCourty, Peppers will be counted on to work as a key member of a New England safety corps that also includes fellow returnees Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips. The 2017 first-rounder is coming off a 2022 campaign in which he logged 60 tackles in 17 games, and Peppers could see an uptick in production in his second season with the Patriots now that McCourty is no longer in the mix.

The Giants have the league's most crowded safety room, but by having Peppers, Logan Ryan and Xavier McKinney chip in at positions like corner and linebacker they can get them all three-down workloads. In Week 17 last year, all three played more than 70 snaps, and that's how the Giants base defense might look this season. If not for an ankle injury suffered in Week 3, Peppers probably would have surpassed triple-digit tackles for the first time last year. If Peppers could just make more of an impact in coverage he could close in on DB1 status in IDP leagues.

Peppers really broke out as an IDP last year, totaling 76 tackles and one interception on 725 snaps before his season was unfortunately ended by a transverse process fracture. It was more or less the same tackle rate he showed in Cleveland the year before - 79 tackles on 765 snaps - but in last year's case he did it over 11 games instead of 16. If you take Peppers' production from those 11 games and project them over 16 you get roughly 111 tackles, so it's reasonable to assume a triple-digit output over his next 16 games. There should be room for DB1 upside in the case of both Peppers and rookie teammate Xavier McKinney, because Peppers posted those 2019 numbers as Antoine Bethea posted 110 tackles of his own.

Acquired in the Odell Beckham trade, Peppers should slot as the Giants' starting strong safety right away, though in defensive coordinator James Bettcher's scheme, there's not a major distinction between the free and strong safety spots. In any event, expect the athletic Peppers - 5-11, 213, 4.46 40, 128-inch broad jump - to log a heavy snap count and vie for the team lead in tackles. He'll also see time returning kicks and punts.

Peppers, drafted 25th overall in the 2017 draft, had an up and down rookie campaign. The strong safety faced a lot of criticism for how deep he played, something he's aiming to improve on in 2018. In thirteen games, Peppers, who logged 57 tackles, broke up three passes and intercepted one in 13 games, while being used as the team's primary punt returner. With Derrick Kindred and Damarious Randall now in the fold, Peppers may not draw too many starts, but he should still play a substantial role in Cleveland's defense.

A standout at Michigan, Peppers was selected with the Browns 25th overall pick, giving Cleveland a player capable of wreaking havoc all over the field, from linebacker to safety. It's expected the rookie will line up at safety this season, but covering faster, stronger wideouts could leave Peppers with a steep learning curve to begin the year. To top it off, Peppers' draft stock suffered after he submitted an overly-diluted drug test sample at the combine, raising a red flag for many teams. However, there's no doubting Peppers is a freak athlete, one of the best in his class, but whether he makes an instant impact this season remains to be seen.