We continue our training camp positional preview series by looking at the safety room.
Signed: Kyle Dugger, Jabril Peppers, Marte Mapu, Jaylinn Hawkins, Joshuah Bledsoe, Brenden Schooler, and Dell Petus.
If you ask me which spots on the Patriots roster I feel most at ease with, safety is at or near the top of the list. It's not the best room in the league — I'm not saying that — but it is talented, versatile, and has an X-factor I'll get into later.
We'll start with the best player in the group ... Peppers. He's in the second year of a two-year deal worth $9 million. You want to talk about a bargain? That is it. One of the more surprising aspects of this offseason is that for all the talk and action about keeping the core locked up, Peppers remains in a walk-year. Sure, there's plenty of time to right that wrong, but it is wrong. He was a stud last season.
From start to finish, Peppers was the best, most consistent defensive player on the roster. That's not a knock on Christian Barmore or Jahlani Tavai - both were excellent - but the former first-rounder out of Michigan found a home and played like it. Just as important was how much Peppers gave a damn, even as the season went sideways. Others created distractions. The old Pat Riley "Disease of Me" was in full effect. Peppers bristled at those behaviors. It was and is the type of leadership the team needs more of.
"The beauty about this league is nobody cares what you did last year, good or bad," he told us at the end of May. "You gotta go out there and prove it again. We know what we can be. We just gotta keep coming in and working at it. ... By the time the season starts, we should be where we want to be."
Peppers is best as a box safety or in the slot on run-downs. Still, the considerable growth during his snaps as a free safety was noteworthy. You may not recall too many positive plays from last season, but him crashing down on a Davante Adams slant against the Raiders, separating the man from the ball, was a thing of beauty (Tavai picked off the pass, which shot about 10 yards into the air after the bone-crushing hit). There were other examples of his improvement from that spot, and while I still would prefer a Devin McCourty-type, Peppers flipped his hips smoothly and showed better range than anticipated. He's a keeper, and at 28, he's still got a few years of good ball in him.
His running mate is Dugger. We know what he's best at — being a downhill freight train. He willingly attacks pulling guards or bigger tight ends and stays in the fight. Dugger is also being used increasingly as a pass rusher, with positive results. He had a couple of sacks and a dozen QB pressures last year. More, please.
His game has been picked apart in coverage, particularly when forced to handle a half-field drop. The former Division II standout from Lenoir-Rhyne has never looked entirely comfortable in those spots. Last year, minus McCourty, he looked out of sorts at times. He had his poorest year as a pass defender, even more spotty than it was for him as a rookie. Is Dugger capable of a bounceback, or at least improvement in that area? At 28, just a few months younger than Peppers, this might be what he is, but I will say, the way he talked to us this spring, armed with that new contract, revealed a more confident kid, relieved the negotiations were a thing of the past. Could that, and the absence of Belichick's way of motivating (fear), bring Dugger back into Pro Bowl-chatter? For what he's getting paid, that's the hope.
Mapu is the X-factor I mentioned. His selection in the 2023 draft sent some ripples through the organization. Heck, even defensive coaches wondered why Belichick would keep adding to that side of the ball when the offense needed a makeover.
Coming off surgery, Mapu had to wear the red non-contact jersey all of last spring and most of the summer, and while he was a blur for that stretch, the moment he had to go full pads, it changed. A smart kid with good football sense, Mapu never looked comfortable. He finished his rookie year with just over 200 snaps and never distinguished himself in any area. What is he?
Entering year two, he spent much of his time as the dime linebacker this spring, occupying the role Mack Wilson (now with Arizona) had. Mayo said of Mapu he's "a big slot corner, a bigger safety, or smaller linebacker." That position versatility will no doubt come to good use, but is it preventing the second-year player from becoming something more significant? Or is this how he's destined to make his living in the NFL? A depth piece/special teamer is not the best use of a third-round pick, but with Peppers and Dugger ahead of Mapu in the pecking order, he might only get that chance if someone dramatically underperforms or gets hurt. Well, we shall see.
Hawkins opened my eyes this spring. The veteran is a free safety who has been in a couple of spots already—Atlanta and LA with the Chargers—and showed good range and smarts during his brief time here in Foxborough. If he maintains the consistency we saw in May and June, Hawkins could make a case for being the third safety in passing downs, thus enabling Peppers and Dugger to handle tight ends and hell-raising closer to the line of scrimmage. I legit lit up as a I wrote that sentence.
Schooler is on the roster as THE special team guy now, with Matthew Slater retired. Bledsoe has been around for what feels like an eternity (only year four) but has never been able to force his way onto the field. They like the kid, but I am hard-pressed to see anything more than a roster bubble player.