Jabrill Peppers

Jabrill Ahmad Peppers (born October 4, 1995) is an American professional football safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He was a two-time college football All-American for the Michigan Wolverines, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2016, as well as being named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Linebacker of the Year and Return Specialist of the Year. Peppers was selected in the first round by the Cleveland Browns in the 2017 NFL draft. He has also played for the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Peppers originally attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey. Peppers also played youth football for the Montclair Bulldogs, from Montclair, New Jersey, a Pop Warner youth team. He started as a cornerback in his freshman year, before also taking over as a running back as a sophomore. With Peppers, Don Bosco won consecutive New Jersey state championships in 2010 and 2011, and was the top-ranked team in the nation by USA Today in 2011.

Peppers left Don Bosco to attend Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, New Jersey, where he helped lead the Paladins to another state championship over Bergen Catholic in 2012. Peppers was named Player of the Year by MSG Varsity after his junior season with Paramus Catholic. In his senior year, another successful season saw Peppers lead Paramus Catholic to another state title, defeating St. Peter's Prep., making Peppers a state championship winner in all four years of his high school career. Peppers was also selected to participate in the 2013–14 Under Armour All-America Game.

As a talented track athlete, Peppers set the New Jersey Non-Public Class A outdoor 100-meter dash record with a time of 10.77 seconds. He has a personal-best of 10.51 seconds in the 100 meters. In his senior year at Paramus Catholic, he won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes in New Jersey's 2013 Meet of Champions, becoming only the second person ever to do so, after Fabian Santiago of Oakcrest High School the year before.

The Rivals.com recruiting network identified Peppers as one of the five-star recruits in the Class of 2014. On May 26, 2013, Peppers announced his verbal commitment to the Michigan Wolverines in a live telecast on ESPN. He was regarded as the head of Michigan's 2014 recruiting class. ESPN ranked him as the second-best recruit in the class of 2014, behind only running back Leonard Fournette.

As a true freshman at Michigan, Peppers appeared in three games, making one start under then-head coach Brady Hoke. In his first career start against Appalachian State, he recorded two tackles and returned one punt for six yards. However, he sustained an injury in the game and was redshirted for the remainder of his freshman season.

In the 2015 season, Peppers had a new head coach in Jim Harbaugh. Following the 2015 season, Peppers was named the Big Ten Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year, and named to the All-Big Ten defensive first-team, by both the coaches and media, and the All-Big Ten special teams second-team by coaches. He was also named a Second-team All-American by CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated. He was also named to the Freshman All-America Team by Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). He was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award. In 12 games, Peppers played a combined 986 snaps this season, with 50 coming on offense, 765 on defense, and 171 on special teams. On defense, he registered 45 total tackles, 5.5 tackles-for-loss, and 10 pass breakups. On special teams, he returned all 17 punts on the season for 194 yards, an average of 11.4 yards per return. Peppers has returned eight kickoffs for 223 yards, an average of 27.9 yards per return, on a unit that ranked second in the FBS with 28.41 yards per kick return. On offense, he added eight catches for 79 yards with 18 rushes for 72 yards and two touchdowns. Peppers has gained 568 all-purpose yards on the season, an average of 47.3 yards per game, ranking fifth on the team.

Following an outstanding performance on September 17, 2016, against Colorado, Peppers was named the Walter Camp FBS Player of the Week, Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, and Special Teams Player of the Week. He became the first conference player to be named both Defensive and Special Teams Player of the Week in the same week since the special teams honor was added in 1994. Peppers recorded a career-best nine tackles, including six solo stops and 3.5 tackles-for-loss. In addition, he recorded 204 yards of total offense, including his first career punt return for a touchdown.