00:00Why'd Jabril Peppers get cut? What happened there?
00:02I wish I had to answer. It was a couple weeks ago.
00:04They were going to Minnesota, and I was thinking to myself,
00:09Peppers is a Vrabel player.
00:12It just struck me what they've been talking about defensively.
00:15Violence?
00:16Violence.
00:17And I just think, you know, Peppers, there's something about him.
00:21His play style.
00:22And so I had requested to interview Jabril after one of the practices
00:29before they left to Minnesota because I wasn't going out for the joint practices.
00:33And I wrote about it on ESPN for the day after the Vikings preseason game,
00:39just how much Jabril liked playing for Vrabel.
00:44And he told me he's kept a notebook over his nine years of his career.
00:50And he's in a meeting with Vrabel,
00:53and Vrabel's talking about everything that he wants the team to be.
00:56And Jabril said he didn't have to really change anything in his notebook
01:00because it's everything that he sort of believes in
01:03and that Jabril wants to be a coach when he's done playing.
01:07And so he sort of felt like they were aligned.
01:10So you asked, like, why did he get cut?
01:12At that point, I felt like everything was going well.
01:17I will tell you, Beatle, from the week of the Vikings practice that I wasn't there
01:23when they went to Minnesota.
01:24I think he landed on his hip or something, got maybe a little shaken up,
01:30didn't play, as though you were there in the second preseason game.
01:34When they came back, he was not running with the top group anymore.
01:38It was Jalen Hawkins and Craig Woodson, the rookie.
01:45Thanks.
01:46So his role was changing based on what we saw.
01:50And Paul Perillo and Mike Giardi will vouch for this.
01:53We're watching practice.
01:55I think it was maybe after the Giants game.
01:59And when he had played, that was an eye-opener that he played in that game.
02:03And we saw him running with, you know, Del Pettis and the backups.
02:08And we looked at each other, the three of us, on the media hill,
02:11and we said, we might have to put our antennas up on this.
02:15So we felt a shift.
02:18And I will tell you guys that, like, someone mentioned to me that,
02:22and I don't know how this stuff works.
02:24Another team, you call around to other teams.
02:27Hey, who might be available?
02:30Like, Pepper's name had come up.
02:32I know there was a lot of discussion about Duggar and Jennings.
02:35I think they were also talking about Jabril.
02:38So I don't know what it was, but I would say that his spot on the team,
02:43I don't think, was as secure.
02:46You think there's something else I can tell.
02:47I do.
02:48No, I absolutely do.
02:49I think he pissed somebody off.
02:50And I think that his off-the-field something or other got in the way of him
02:54being on this roster.
02:55Because this is not a team that can afford to give up talented players.
02:59They're not good enough.
03:01They're not talented enough.
03:02They're certainly not deep enough.
03:04And whatever you think of Jabril Peppers, there's no doubt about his ability.
03:11I mean, he is a NFL starting safety and is graded out as one of the best
03:15in the league over the last few years when healthy.
03:18And so, I mean, it's not his level of play.
03:22It's not that he's not going to fit well enough within the scheme.
03:25He pissed somebody off.
03:27And I think he pissed off the guy who matters most around here now, Mike Rabel.
03:31He pissed him off somehow, and he said, this isn't going to work for us.
03:34You're going to go.
03:35Because I'm doing something here.
03:38And, yeah, sure, your role was going to be different and maybe not what it was
03:43over the last couple of years.
03:44But there's a sliding scale there of being a pain in the ass
03:50and being worth having on the roster.
03:52And, yeah, you know what?
03:53You're just over that line.
03:54Get out.
03:54But that's how I think it goes down.
03:56This feels to me like it's a –
03:57He's too good of a player to have it just be about his role changing.
04:00It's an identity slash culture cut.
04:03But, Zoe, the tough part for me is on the identity.
04:07I think Jabril Peppers is the type of identity that Rabel wants.
04:13On the field.
04:13Culture is different on the field.
04:15On the field.
04:16Culture is different.
04:16And maybe there's something there.
04:19I think if I had the chance to ask Jabril a question, which I don't, it would be, okay,
04:27we all saw things were shifting, that you were playing with the backups for the last two weeks of camp.
04:36Yeah.
04:36How would you have felt about playing behind Jalen Hawkins and Craig Woodson?
04:42That would be the question I would ask him because, Beetle, it would clear up one thing for me,
04:46which is, like, if Jabril Peppers is proud and feels like he should be playing over Jalen Hawkins,
04:54a six-year veteran who has been around, and over a fourth-round rookie out of Cal who's still finding his way,
05:03that would make sense to me that he might feel like that role was underneath him.
05:10I'm not saying that.
05:12No, no, it's a good theory.
05:13I think you're probably onto something there.
05:15I wonder if him playing in that final preseason game was a test.
05:20I wonder about that.
05:22Yeah.
05:22Good coaches pull those things, right?
05:25They do those things.
05:26To see how a player will respond.
05:28How's he going to react?
05:29You know, that's a Parcells thing, isn't it, so?
05:32Yeah.
05:32Right?
05:33Absolutely.
05:33Let's throw him out there.
05:34Let's see how he responds to this.
05:35Let's put him in the game.
05:36Test.
05:36See how he feels about it after the game.
05:40Coaches, the good coaches do that stuff.
05:42They play those mind games.
05:45And maybe it didn't go well.
05:46Maybe he didn't like that one bit.
05:47Well, the irony of that possibility is that after that game, Jabril's in the locker room
05:53and Kyle Duggars, the next stall over, and those were two players that a lot of us reporters
06:00wanted to talk to.
06:02And the reporters were asking Jabril about Kyle.
06:06Yeah.
06:07You know, and so, as we talk about this, I think you guys mentioned this, like, their
06:11style of play is somewhat similar.
06:14Yes.
06:14So, I do wonder if something had happened with Kyle Duggar, if another team had acquired
06:21him in a trade, would, I don't know if this would be different with Jabril, like, if it
06:26was a one or the other type thing.
06:28You were retweeting Peppers?
06:31I retweeted him.
06:31Was it the going on nine years tweet?
06:33Yeah.
06:33Yeah.
06:34Why?
06:34Well, David Andrews told me.
06:36He said, did you see Reece retweeting Peppers, stirring it up?
06:39I know.
06:40David, look at that.
06:41Well, because...
06:42He said, look at Reece stirring things up.
06:44But that's interesting that he said that, because my thing is, I wanted to hear from
06:48Jabril just to learn more about where he's coming from.
06:52Well, what he wrote on Twitter was, going on nine years in this league, I've had seven
06:57head coaches and six defensive coordinators.
06:59LOL.
07:00Tweets like Zo texts.
07:02Ha ha.
07:03LOL.
07:04La la la.
07:05There is no scheme you can place me in where I won't find a way to be effective.
07:11Yeah.
07:12So when I saw that, I wanted to retweet it, because I feel like, as a reporter, if you
07:16have the chance to share a player's thought process on what has happened, that's good
07:22to pass along to followers.
07:26That was a thought process.
07:27But I don't know.
07:28I don't know.
07:29On the scheme thing, I will say, I know Mike Rabel said it wasn't about the scheme.
07:33I sort of feel like watching the team with the safeties, they'd, and this is probably
07:39simplifying it, and Zo, help me on this, because when I get into the X's and O's, I get a little
07:45hesitant.
07:46Oh, do you?
07:47What?
07:48What do you want help with?
07:48I feel like they want the safeties to just, just don't get beat behind you.
07:52That's the killer.
07:54We'll, we'll, we'll, like, just, and, and, and.
07:56You're going to be asked to cover guys down the field.
07:58Yeah.
07:58Help and coverage.
07:59Yeah.
08:00Yeah.
08:00And, and, and, and I feel like, I feel like Jabril, who I do think is a, a Rabel player
08:05from a, a identity standpoint, I think he's a crusher.
08:09He's more like a linebacker.
08:10Going downhill.
08:10He's a linebacker playing safe.
08:11So I, I, I.
08:12And it took Mike Rabel until September to figure this out?
08:16I think he was, I, my view of it was he was trying, like, different roles within their
08:20scheme to see if it would, would take, that means go to the slot, cover in the slot.
08:25Well, they strictly couldn't be down on the box guys.
08:27You got to move, because you can't fool quarterbacks.
08:29If you're Joe Burrow, and you see he's always down on the box, I'm always going to come
08:32as a front guy.
08:33He's never going to be in coverage.
08:34So you think they tried to trade him, though, first, before they did this, and didn't get
08:37any takers?
08:38I think.
08:38Probably tried to trade Duggar and him.
08:40I would say, I, I think he was available before they did this.
08:44I do.
08:45And Pepper's contract is far more palatable.
08:48Yeah.
08:49Based in terms of total dollars and where he's at, and how he's played recently, than where
08:55Duggar is.
08:55Oh, yeah, it's not even close.
08:56Like, Duggar not getting a trade, not getting any nibbles there.
08:58You get it.
09:00Peppers?
09:00So, so I would say.
09:01You get an offer.
09:02And I.
09:02You get a deal done.
09:03And I really like, I really like Jabril Peppers.
09:05He wouldn't, like, so, and I, what he said, I respect his opinion.
09:10I will say there's others around the league that do view him as a, more of a scheme-specific
09:16player.
09:17Or, like the Bill Belichick scheme, same with Kyle Duggar.
09:20Like, when he was a free agent and they put the transition tag on him, there were teams
09:26around the league that I spoke with that said he fits really well in that scheme that Bill
09:30runs or Gerard runs.
09:32But he wouldn't necessarily fit for every scheme.
09:36But he wouldn't necessarily fit for every scheme.
