Player Signing Patriots sign S Marcus Epps

[Triumph]

Patriots sign safety who was captain in Vegas under Josh McDaniels

There's your answer to why he is here.

Same with Hollins. Mickey D brought Dan Andleman here too and that panned out.

 

[Wozzy]

Watch the video I just posted. He's not quick enough to recover from speedy WRs but he's solid as a tackler.

He's a good athlete, he just doesn't possess that McCourty speed to play the deep ball well.

Also he's coming off knee surgery, so he's not going to be at full strength the better part of this season.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I don’t know how I feel about signing defensive guys that were under the watch of our offensive coordinator.

I don’t want McDaniels to have any personnel control.

I don’t think he has any personnel control at all, but he can certainly have input on the kind of person and player he was.

I think they are consulting all of their coaches on players they are bringing in from their former team’s. It would be stupid not to.

 

[BobDigital]

Curious about the contract. I don't hate the signing.... As if he doesn't work out we won't have to pay him the 4.4M in total as 'up to' implies incentives... but how much of that 4.4 is incentives? Curious to know. And while he may not be a great player he was a team captain and starter for his last 3 years. And typically you don't get to start and see a bunch of playing time in the NFL if you are not at least around starting level in this league.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

There's your answer to why he is here.

Same with Hollins. Mickey D brought Dan Andleman here too and that panned out.

Better than Eddie Andelman by at least a mile...
Hated that dude.

 

[BobDigital]

Enjoy

makes me feel better. Seems like a decent safety when put in the right position. Just have to make sure we put him in those positions as often as we can.

 

[mgteich]

We needed competition for the #3 and #4 safety positions. We now have Hawkins, Epps, Pettus and Mapu.

 

[imahobgoblin]

Well if his scheme calls for the FS to cover anyone then they're gonna struggle with that part of it, at least who they have as of right now.

We don't know what the scheme is at this point. Free agency just opened two days ago.

 

[Mack Herron]

Seem like Vrabel is getting ready for some 6-3 Games. Somebody remind Vrabel it's Football not Baseball.

That's an optimistic outlook.

If you cannot win on the LOS you cannot control time of possession.

If you cannot control time of possession your defense will get worn down and lose at the LOS.

If we sacrifice the LOS, it won't be 6-3, it'll be more like 28-3.

"“We have to focus on the line because I think that the best teams right now in the National Football League are the ones that still have the best offensive lines,” Vrabel said...

Mike Vrabel addresses Patriots' offensive line issues

Newly hired Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel understands the importance of repairing the offensive line before next season.

clutchpoints.com

 

[Patsgofor4]

I don't think either of them even belong in "depth" roles at FS. They're SS's. Which is ok. But it just feels imbalanced to have 6 SSs on the roster right now and none that profile well at FS. I understand you bring 90 guys to camp, but this feels more like they plan to not have a FS again next year and play 2 SSs together.

Whoever told you that Epps is a SS was either misinformed or was lying to you. He's 100% a FS.

 

[hornetfb85]

Fair point. Our 2 best safeties are still Dugger and Peppers though and both of them are fish out of water lined up deep. I don't think either of them are great fits for cover 1, which IMO is the best way to take advantage of the great man coverage CB duo we have.

To be fair though, that duo looked fine with BB in 2023. If I recall, they played mostly those two guys together as the lone safeties. Peppers played 97.98% of the snaps, 83.92% for Peppers (missed 2 games, otherwise would have been higher). Jalen Mills played 40.3% of the snaps and he's kind of a safety, but that totaled to 459 snaps on the year and a disproportionate amount of them (130 out of 459, 28.3% of his total snaps) came in the 2 games Peppers missed. Mapu played 17.9% of the snaps. Phillips played 12.1%. But overall, yeah it was a lot less 3 safety snaps and while I think the Peppers/Dugger duo faltered at times with deep coverage, it wasn't crippling.

Peppers was a straight dog playing 190% of the snaps….

On a serious note. The safety room could take a step forward if lasts years Dugger was indeed injury related. Hopefully he can revert to earlier years. Peppers I’m assuming is good to go with his legal troubles. Hawkins and Epps are ok. Really interested in seeing the progression of Dell Pettus and how the staff utilizes Mapu. Could turn into a solid room if things go well.

 

[hornetfb85]

Epps and Hawkins can battle it out for a spot and take this fella with one of our 3rds…

Andrew Mukuba Draft and Combine Prospect Profile | NFL.com

 

[captain stone]

Dude’s a ****ing IR-body who ****ing Sucks. **** him too.

Yet ANOTHER ****ING FAIL in an offseason FULL of them.

 

[Real fan 02]

Another middle class, 2001-esque signing. Let's hope it works .

Was thinking the exact same thing.. never hurts to have quality depth.. I think we will be playing alot of DBs on the field alot.. this season.

 

[Real fan 02]

Dude’s a ****ing IR-body who ****ing Sucks. **** him too.

Yet ANOTHER ****ING FAIL in an offseason FULL of them.

Meh.. IMO nothing to really complain about.. home boy may not even make the team.. a nothing ****ing singing.. veteran depth if anything.

 

[BobDigital]

We needed competition for the #3 and #4 safety positions. We now have Hawkins, Epps, Pettus and Mapu.

Epps isn't really a backup level player as much as at worst a 3rd safety who will see the field for a certain role in specific packages but probably a decent full time starter if he bounces bck well. Look at the man's snap counts... which to me is one of the most underrated things in football.

in 2022 on the Eagles he played 99.10% of the snaps on defense and led the team in defensive snaps on the 8th overall defense. So on a D of that level he filled an important role and they didn't want him off the field.

in 2023 on the Raiders he played 91% of the snaps, best for 4th most on D. This was the 9th best D by PPGs.

In 2024 he only played 3 games (got injured in the 3rd... i don't know at what point in the game) and played 15.8% of the total snaps... so likely the vast majority of snaps until he got injured. For what it is worth in their first 2 games they allowed 22 and 23 points vs overall good offenses in SD and Balt... was it amazing D? No, but probably more in line with 2023 for the Raiders... and not 2024 when they ended up having 25th overall D without him. Now i am in no way shape or form saying Epps is the reason the Raiders dropped from the 9th best D to the 25th. No one defensive player is responsible for a 6 PPG swing. But it played a factor I'm sure. How large of one is something we can only guess.

People shouldn't dislike this signing. Epps IS NOT a camp body. He is better than not. Epps IS NOT the 4th safety on this team if he comes back form his injury. He is better than that. I look at his 1 year up to 4.4M contract and frankly. I think we got a pretty damn good deal.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Curious about the contract. I don't hate the signing.... As if he doesn't work out we won't have to pay him the 4.4M in total as 'up to' implies incentives... but how much of that 4.4 is incentives? Curious to know. And while he may not be a great player he was a team captain and starter for his last 3 years. And typically you don't get to start and see a bunch of playing time in the NFL if you are not at least around starting level in this league.

Good open field tackler
Lacks ball hawk skills
Team Captain which seams to be the theme
Set up the culture first which is going to be needed to sell his plan

 

[Ring 6]

Epps and Schweitzer and Tonga and Chiasson will really excite the fan base.
Get ready for greatest show on turf part 2

Elliott is nailing it

Depth matters.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Here's a clip of him doing something they need a FS to do. This appears to be an outlier play for him though, reading up on him. He's not a coverage guy.

They have 6 NFL caliber safeties right now in Kyle Dugger, Jabril Peppers, Marcus Epps, Jaylin Hawkins, Dell Pettus, Marte Mapu (Mapu might be fringes of NFL caliber). Not a single one of them appears capable of playing FS in cover 1. They put together one of the best man coverage tandems in the game, but they don't really have the ability to capitalize on that right now because they aren't going to be able to consistently keep only 1 safety deep. They're going to need to play a lot of quarters and cover 2 which neuters what their biggest strength appears to be on defense.

No issue with any of these players individually and in the end they could still add a FS type or two through FA and/or the draft and leave these 6 guys to fight each other for roster spots with 1-2 of them getting cut/traded. But right now there's a gaping hole on their defense and it's one that kills off the one aspect of the defense I think they're really good at. So blah...

They won't be able to address FS until mid to late rounds.

We still have gaping holes at LT and WR1.

DT and Edge have been shored up in free agency, but it's hard to think they would pass on those positions if good value dropped to say rounds 3 or 4.

 

[jdlboot14]

I wish they could have signed Jones to convert to FS - his size doesn't matter as much there, and his cover ability, ball skills, and knowledge would have been a good thing to keep as a vet leader.
Hawkins is very average, and Epps is an unknown.