MORSE: Thoughts on Peppers Release and Other Patriots Transactions
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I am shocked by this move! Three days after the initial cutdown, the Patriots released Peppers? What happened in the last three days? PFF had Peppers with a 90.1 rating on average of the last 4 seasons, which is 4th best overall.
Peppers sounded like the perfect Mike Vrabel type of player. He is a hard hitter and responsible safety, a leader on the team, a tone-setter.
Here are six scenarios:
The Patriots owe Peppers $4.32M in guaranteed money. That is about what they saved from the Kendrick Bourne contract.
The Patriots are not deep enough to be dumping good veteran talent like Peppers. Vrabel stated the reason that Peppers played in the Giants game was because he wanted to see him play with Woodson. Did they not like what they saw? If so, why wait until Friday when they could have done this at the cutdown day?
Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald speculated “Peppers’ release is a surprise. Based on his performance in practice and the preseason, there isn’t much basis for cutting him, especially given their depth. Without speculating specifically, other considerations likely factored”.
Why did the Patriots wait until 9 days before the opening game to release Peppers? It was curious that the move was made on a Friday of a Holiday weekend.
Curious that all of the original Captains from last season’s team have been let go. Hunter Henry was named Captain after Ja’Whuan Bentley’s season ending injury. He is the only Captain left from last year.
This move cannot come down on Eliot Wolf! There is no way that Wolf could make this move without getting the approval of Head Coach Mike Vrabel. This kind of decision is not being made in a vacuum.
Gregory enters his first season in the NFL after going undrafted in the 2025 Draft. He played six years at Arkansas and appeared in 61 games, starting 44 of them from 2020-24. He totaled 135 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, and 9.5 sacks.
Arkansas turned to Gregory to start during the COVID-shortened 2020 season and kept him in the rotation and starting lineup for years to come. He played all over the defensive line for the Razorbacks but was mainly aligned in the B-gap. His most productive season was his last in 2024 when he netted 42 tackles, five tackles for loss, and three sacks. Pro Football Focus graded him out at 75.3 overall and 82.3 in run defense for that season.
Gregory, who had a draftable grade, signed a three-year, $2.995 million college free agent deal in May following the draft. He earned a $30,000 signing bonus, tied for the largest out of Cincinnati’s 14 UDFAs, and can earn a non-guaranteed $840,000 base salary this season. The signing bonus is indictive that Cincinnati
At the Combine he ran 5.14, 40-yard dash, and put up 28 reps on the Bench Press. From what I have seen, the Bengals were upset they lost Gregory.
Mumford, 6’6” 354-pounds, was a 7th Round (#238) by Las Vegas. His career at Ohio State was outstanding. Having been selected 2nd Team All-Big 10 Left Tackle in 2019, 1st team in 2020 and 1st team LT in 2021 and followed that up with a position change to LG in 2022 and was selected 1st team again. He had 44 career starts, 0 sacks in 2019, 5 sacks in 2020, 0 sacks in 2021 and just 1 at LG in 2022! This gives them a player that provides roster protection at two positions.
Conley, the 6’7” 325-pound OL from New Caanan CT, played at Boston College, where Patriots Offensive Line coach Doug Marrone was a consultant for HC Bill O’Brien.
I think there is a roster imbalance at the Defensive Tackle position with 6 on the active roster and 4 more on the Practice Squad. Are the Patriots planning to play a Three Defensive Tackles and 1 Edge player Defense?
It’s beginning to look like money is the root of Patriots Roster moves and other moves they could have made. The Patriots tried to move him and when they couldn’t, they asked Kendrick Bourne to take a pay cut, he refused, and he was released. I guarantee that Jabrill Peppers was also asked to take a pay cut. He wouldn’t and they released him. His release was before the Patriots were awarded Eric Gregory.
The Patriots inquired about Micah Parson but the amount of money they would have to pay him ($120M guaranteed), to go along with the two 1st round draft picks, and a starting DT (believed to be Barmore) was too much. That $120M has to put in escrow immediately and Robert Kraft would not do that.
Andrew Callahan also indicated today that the Patriots had a deal in place for Kyle Dugger, but the two teams couldn’t agree on the amount of Dugger’s salary the Patriots would retain. Peppers was insurance in case they were going to trade Dugger. With Dugger still on the team, Peppers and Dugger became redundant, so they jettisoned Peppers.
This you can blame on Eliot Wolf. The following salaries were agreed upon by Wolf when it became obvious that Free Agent players from other teams wouldn’t sign to play in Foxboro. These are all contracts signed by Wolf in 2024!
The following players are no longer with the Patriots:
Jabrill Peppers: 3 years, $24 million
Davon Godcahux: 2 years, $21 million
David Andrews: 2 years, $12 million (inj./retired)
Kendrick Bourne: 3 years, $19.5 million
Josh Uche: 1 year, $3 million
These players are still on the roster:
Kyle Dugger: 4 years, $57 million (shopped)
Anfernee Jennings: 3 years, 12 million (shopped)
Christian Barmore: 4 years, $83 million
Mike Onwenu 3 years, $57 million
Rhamondre Stevenson: 4 years, $36 million
Hunter Henry: 3 years, $27 million
Jahlani Tavai: 3 years, $16 million (IR)
Barmore had the blood clot issue that no one could predict. Stevenson developed a fumbling issue, and he has not lived up to his contract. Onwenu didn’t play well last year but has looked good so far this season. Jury is out on his performance versus the contract. They couldn’t agree on how much money to take back in a trade for Dugger. They couldn’t find a trade partner for Jennings. Jahlani Tavai would have been let go if they couldn’t put him on IR. The only player worth his contract has been Hunter Henry.
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