DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Jabrill Peppers

I don't know if this has been talked about or not, but how many of you think Peppers is playing out of position? And I'm not talking about just the difference between free safety and strong safety, but when he was drafted(which I thought was a reach), I thought his best position was as a nickel defender, either lined up on the slot, as a nickel LB, or as a nickel safety. But definitely keep him close to the LOS. Limit his roll so he can be more effective and focused on returns(IMO his best asset).After watching him all season now, that hasn't changed for me. Hell, maybe even move him to RB.

Everyone feels this way.

It has been posted by many people on here that we will not know what we have in this pick if we continue to play him out of his position.

I didn't know it was posted already, been away from the board for awhile. But my point is in my opinion, I'm not sure he's a full time safety.

General thinking seems to be the addition of a FS will allow Peppers to play closer to the line, and be the thumper he was drafted to be.

I'm not convinced he's a true thumper. Watching him at Michigan he seemed to be most effective on the edge of the defense, not necessarily in the box, but outside of the tackle. There he could Blitz(which he's very good at especially from the outside), cover the screen, if he sees run close and make the tackle, etc.... He just seems to not have a true NFL position. He's a very good tackler but IMO not a true downhill safety cause he seems to make his best plays in space, just happens to be in the space close to the line of scrimmage. Which is why I like him as a nickel. IDK he just doesn't play like a every down safety to me. I think he can be effective in the right roll.

This is about as close to my opinion as I've read about Peppers.

I think he sucks. Doesn't have NFL mental drive.

I suspect his main motivations in the NFL are:

1) To not get hurt
2) Make as much money as possible

"IDK he just doesn't play like a every down safety..."

He was a major first round draft mistake.

He's a rookie playing out of position. We should cut him immediately.

He never had a position coming out of college. So I don't know why everyone thinks he is out of position. Kindred has been damn good at strong safety anyway.

Besides how many plays do we expect him to make 35 yards from the Los.

Peppers is playing out of position alright, he should be playing on practice squad at best.

Worst player of the team.

Browns 0 wins but a lot of excuses....

Bet the team wished they had Peppers back vs the Packers.

He's learning a new position and barring a huge jump won't stick at FS.

But on a depleted roster what other choices are there?

I think the problem with Peppers is the same as everyone else on the team. Game plans not fitting skill set. Our coaching staff doesn’t coach to skill they try to make players fit their scheme.

Just my opinion - but I don't think Peppers is a very good "anything NFL". He takes bad angles, can't cover and tries to hit instead of tackle. Not sure what we got when we traded down out of the spot for Hooker - but I'd kill for Hooker. I was high on Rueben Foster too. Oh and Marlon Humphreys ... Oh well.

Hopefully next year Peppers adapts and shows me something he hasn't shown me so far this year. I mean there's been nothing ... I con't think of a SINGLE play where I paid attention and thought "that's why we drafted him" .... Njoku and Kizer have both been disappointing, but both have shown me plays where I thought "hey - if he keeps doing that ...". Sadly Peppers = nothing.

I've said it a couple times after the draft - statistically the odds are very high that at least one of the three 1st round draft picks is a bust. So I guess it won't be surprising if Peppers or Njoku (or both) is a disappointment.

I'd like to see him play in the "buffalo nickel" position the Seahawks use. That, or despite his size, I'd like to see him and MLB.

Maybe Harbaugh will know how to use him next year. hmm lol

Before the emergence of Joe Schobert, I thought Jabrill Peppers would play a ton of linebacker and nickelback. I think Schobert forced the coaching staff to play three traditional linebackers (before Collins got hurt). This forced Peppers to play out of position.

The reason given by the coaching staff for why he ended up playing free safety is that we don't have anyone better (which I agree with).

I agree. When Peppers was out vs the Packers, that answered this question for me.

When it gets really interesting is after this offseason when we get our stud FS. Then we'll see what the coaching staff has in store for Peppers (or not).

wasn't peppers referred to as a "Swiss Army knife" kinda player? They sure were excited to get him that's for sure.

But don't you need to have other positions covered with guys that can do the job before you can fully utilize a "Swiss Army Knife" kinda guy?

I'll play. It's like having a Swiss Army Knife and using the corkscrew to open a can of soup.

Drafting this guy was a mistake from day one.

I never understood why we drafted the young man , and for sure not in the first ! But then again I never understood the Kiser pick in the second ... lol

I greatly disliked the Peppers pick from the word go. IIRC, Vers was right alongside me in hating the pick. I wish that we would have stayed put and taken Hooker.

I don't understand the disdain the Browns, historically, have had for OSU players.

Hooker did have an injury leading up to the draft.

All I know is that he had an interception when we played them this year.

With this, we can potentially get Minkah Fitzpatrick AND Peppers. (For the cost of Hooker)


I think with Peppers closer to the LOS, we'll see him as a better player. The coaches love him. And I could see a huge drop off between him and Nacua the last game I was able to watch (although I hated Nacua)

No one would choose Peppers over Hooker.

And its not a correct characterization to make it seem like that was the choice.

I don't think the book on Peppers is anywhere close to being closed.

He's was a college CB that moved to linebacker/slot safetey. He's still a dynamic athlete.

No doubt he's struggling at FS. But he's still the best option on the roster.

But keep in mind:
-he is learning a completely new position
-Gregg uses FS in an even more difficult role then the traditional FS
-Safety, like many positions in the NFL don't always hit there stride right out the gate look at Landon Collins and people in this forum have mentioned how Troy Polumalu reported struggled as a rookie

j/c:

I said before the draft that Peppers was vastly overrated. I said he didn't display good coverage in college when he was asked to.

This guy should actually be receiving way more criticism than he has. He has been absolutely horrible. Way worse than even I thought.

I do agree that he is playing out of position, but then again, I can't figure out what his position is. Gunner on Special teams maybe? Dime defender maybe?

His tackling in space is horrendous. His lateral movement is horrendous. His lack of recognition is embarrassing and I saw McCourty call him out against Baltimore last week when Peppers wasn't in position on a TD pass.

I actually thought he would make some flash plays, but he hasn't. I thought he would be exciting in the return game. He hasn't been.

With all that said........he is a rookie. Maybe he will turn it around like Kirksey did. But at this point in time, make no mistake that he has been terrible.

quote by rastanplan above:





OHHH...Almost.....But good position.

Sure put a hurtin' on that jersey.

Lol, absolutely horrible, terrible...tell us how you really feel.

If he's that bad surely there should be someone on the roster better?

Go ahead and laugh ed.

I expressed my opinion. I'm sorry.

With Kindred on IR, I wonder if Williams will consider Peppers at SS and Nacua at FS. Both their natural positions and, hey, we don't have much to lose.

That would make sense, because Nacua looked more natural at FS than Peppers did and Peppers should be closer to the LOS.

C'mon, really?
You've never heard the expression: 'tell us how you really feel?'

Was that on the touchdown pass to Watson before the half ended? Man, I saw that replay and holy crap was he out of position!

What if we passed on Hooker, but end up with Peppers and Kirkpatrick with the Houston pick. Is that a good trade? (I know we passed on Watson too, but let's ignore that for sake of comparing safeties)

You have seen our secondary, right?

When a player enters the draft and has a very large group of supporters and a very large group of detractors, when he starts playing and his production is horrible or excellent, the least you can do is appreciate the other side of the fence.

Peppers, Kizer are cases on the negative side (we have a lot of them)
Zeke/Bosa/Deshaun are positive cases (we have very few if any)

So most probably all the detractors from Peppers, and there were a lot, are right.

Still amazes me how can somebody says that Peppers is a good tackler,but that's life... Maybe someone who never made a tackle in his life... Peppers tackling fundamentals are all wrong, and he is not correcting them. He is a danger to himself and to others.

We had this discussion with TJ some years ago, but TJ improved his game.

Peppers is an undersized linebacker, that's what he was in Michigan...

tbh i think people may have it wrong.. last year Browns coaches were so impressed with Kindred during the preseason, that they said he was competing for the job of free safety with veteran Jordan Poyer. maybe kindred was just so much better at SS that is why peppers is not there?

Are you sure you have that right? I don't recall Kindred being part of the FS competition at all during preseason.
I don't think Kindred is playing SS because he's better at SS then Peppers.
I think Kindred is playing SS, because they tried him at FS some last year and learned it didn't work.