Cleveland Browns: The Jabrill Peppers predicament

Jabrill Peppers is having growing pains in adjusting to the NFL in his rookie season with the Cleveland Browns, but playing at 25-30 yards isn’t the problem.

There has been a ton of discussion regarding Jabrill Peppers and his play at free safety for the Cleveland Browns. The criticism has largely been centered around the “angel” concept that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has utilized with Peppers, where he’s playing between 25 and 30 yards away from the line of scrimmage. So, let’s discuss why they are using it, what it does to help and hurt Peppers and some overarching thoughts on him in general as a player.

First, Williams has cited both Sean Taylor and Ed Reed when mentioning this angel concept and why he uses it. He discussed how the first time he ever used it was when he had Sean Taylor in Washington.

What this concept does is eliminate the need to back pedal, get depth or turn and run. Everything is front of the free safety, so they are able to play fast, downhill and aggressive to the ball, be it a pass or run. In that respect, it simplifies the position in that it doesn’t ask Peppers to think about being deeper than the deepest threat. He starts that way.

At Michigan in his junior year, Peppers played an outside linebacker position with an outside leverage. He forced plays inside and played forward. From that standpoint, it’s asking Peppers to do the same thing, but obviously from a significantly different perspective.

If he missed a tackle or made a wrong read at outside linebacker, he usually had help behind him. Now, if he’s wrong, there’s no one behind him, which can make a player a little more hesitant because they are worried about giving up the big play. Several times, this hesitancy has actually caused the big play rather than prevented it.

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The other part of that is an issue that carried over from his time at Michigan. Peppers didn’t always take good angles and would get caught up in space, making a poor effort on the tackle, not trusting his technique and getting beat as a result. The stakes were lower, but the issue was the same. This was particularly on display against Ohio State where Peppers struggled to tackle quarterback J.T. Barrett.

The other reason that the angel concept makes sense for the Browns is the linebackers and corners they have. Having Peppers play that deep exposes the linebackers a little bit in space, but it is the most effective way for him to be able to help protect the corners and prevent opponents from being the Browns with the deep ball.

When faced with the challenge of helping the corners or the linebackers, Williams is betting on Jamie Collins, Chris Kirksey and Joe Schobert over Jamar Taylor, Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Jason McCourty.

Closer to the line of scrimmage, Peppers would be more equipped to protect the linebackers but that would more on his plate at safety and leave the corners on an island, potentially opening up the deep ball. Against the Indianapolis Colts, the one play where Peppers came down, Jacoby Brissett went down the field for a big completion. Getting beat underneath is certainly better than over the top. It’s difficult to argue with the choice Williams is making here.

With Collins out the past two games, that really proved problematic. Kirksey and Schobert have to simply play better, but having James Burgess out there as opposed to Collins was not exactly ideal. The results were brutal as the Browns got torched by Brissett and Andy Dalton.

The other issue that’s playing into this has nothing to do with Peppers. The Browns don’t get enough pressure from their front four. Williams responds by sending blitzes. And when those don’t work (which is unfortunately all too often), it leaves few defenders in coverage creating huge windows to be exploited, which make the defensive backs, including Peppers look worse.

Even if Peppers were closer to the line of scrimmage, the quarterback would simply move him with his eyes to create openings. And again, without Peppers deep, these plays now can go much further and potentially score.

If the Browns had better corners or even one great corner, perhaps Peppers would play closer to the box or at least play heavier to one side. In the even that happens, it will be interesting to see how Williams decides to employ Peppers.

BALTIMORE, MD – SEPTEMBER 17: Wide receiver Jeremy Maclin #18 of the Baltimore Ravens is tackled by free safety Jabrill Peppers #22 of the Cleveland Browns during the first quarter at M&T Bank Stadium on September 17, 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

Peppers has to do a few things. He needs to be more confident in his angles and technique as a tackler. He can then play faster and the can shrink the windows down the field and potentially make plays on the ball. While the space is an adjustment and can be too much for some players, the angles and technique don’t change. He’s a rookie and there are some growing pains, but certainly there needs to be improvement.

Getting a healthy Myles Garrett back would make life easier for Peppers, as well as everyone else on the defense. It would hopefully eliminate the need for quite as many blitzes as well as many on the blitzes they do send. In addition to simply being more successful (hopefully), this could help shrink some of the windows as well as just make the quarterback uncomfortable in the pocket, which helps the entire defense overall.