3 Patriots contract extensions that need immediate attention
By Lee Vowell
Patriots need to extend safety Jabrill Peppers
Peppers is now seven years into his career and he has bounced around a little. He seems to found a home with New England, however. After not starting much in 2022, his first season with the Patriots, he became a full-time starter this past season and he arguably has his best year. He set a career-low in passer rating allowed when targeted of just 72.7 and just 4.9 yards allowed per target. That last number is extraordinarily low but not terribly far off the 6.5 he allowed in 2022.
Where Peppers truly excels, however, is against the run. He has always been good in that aspect, but he has also greatly improved in the last two seasons. In other words, the years he has played for the Patriots. Peppers moving to New England in 2022 has not just been good for the player, though; his signing has made the defense better as well.
There was an issue late in the 2023 season when Peppers was caught on a hot mic saying the team was not very good. But while no one wants to hear a teammate or a player say that, he also was not wrong. Plus, sometimes it takes tough love to bring a team together and improve in the future. It also takes a bit of leadership to apologize and Peppers did just that but in the words of someone saying, "What I did was wrong, but we should be doing better."
Peppers told reporters, "I just want to apologize to my teammates and coaches for even having to answer questions about that. We have more important things to worry about than me being quoted on a hot mic. At the end of the day, we're 2-9, we have a top-five pick in the draft that didn't come via trade, and we all know the standard. We all know what it's supposed to look like, and it's not that right now."
As much as maybe he should not have disparaged the team, he also did not mean to do so publicly. He was just upset at the way the team was playing. Plus, New England would have been worse had they not had Peppers. The team needs to keep the safety for a few more years, too.