The New England Patriots defense received an unexpected boost on Monday. As was announced by the NFL, safety Jabrill Peppers has been reinstated to the team’s active roster after missing the last seven games on the commissioner’s exempt list.

While his legal situation following an October arrest remains unresolved, Peppers is therefore back with the team and permitted to participate in all football activities. What does that mean for the club, though? Let’s assess the move.

Improved safety depth

Before his legal issues began, Peppers had been a mainstay in the New England secondary. Playing 241 defensive snaps over the first four weeks of the season, he was on the field for 94 percent of reps.

It remains to be seen how quickly the 29-year-old will return to those levels of participation, but his mere presence improves the safety room as a whole. Peppers is an experienced, starter-level player with a knack for the football, who was voted a team captain back in September; having him on the roster makes it a better and deeper one.

In total, New England now has seven safeties signed between its active roster and practice squad:

53-man roster (6): Kyle Dugger (23), Marte Mapu (15), Jaylinn Hawkins (21), Dell Pettus (24), Brenden Schooler (41), Jabrill Peppers (5)

Practice squad (1): Mark Perry (34)

With Peppers back on the 53-man roster, the Patriots have their nominal top four safeties available for the first time all year. How the group consisting of Peppers, Kyle Dugger, Marte Mapu and Jaylinn Hawkins will be used — and what role backups Dell Pettus and Brenden Schooler will play — remains to be seen.

Captaincy questions

Peppers was voted one of six team captains before the start of the regular season. Shortly thereafter, Ja’Whaun Bentley and David Andrews were lost for the year with injury — prompting the Patriots to name Kyle Dugger and Hunter Henry as replacement captains.

When Peppers was sent to the commissioner’s exempt list, meanwhile, his spot among the captains was left open. Does that mean he will don the “C” patch again once returning to the field? That is a question for head coach Jerod Mayo and the other captains — Dugger, Henry, Jacoby Brissett, Deatrich Wise Jr. and Joe Cardona — to answer.

No follow-up move necessary

After a series of transactions last week, the Patriots were left with only 52 of their 53 roster spots occupied heading into their Week 12 game against the Miami Dolphins. That final spot remaining open until Peppers’ activation means that no follow-up move was necessary to move him from the exempt list to the active roster.

Of course, this also means that the Patriots will have to open up a spot if they plan to activate offensive lineman Cole Strange. The former first-round draft pick returned to practice last Wednesday, opening the 21-day window for him to return from the physically unable to perform list.

Salary cap impact

The Patriots identified Peppers as a player to build around over the offseason, signing him to a three-year, $25 million contract extension in July. As part of that deal, he was in a position to earn up to $680,000 in per-game roster bonuses; $600,000 of those considered likely to be earned based on his game total the previous season (LTBE) and therefore counting against New England’s 2024 salary cap.

Due to his stint on the commissioner’s exempt list, he missed out on seven of those bonuses for a total sum of $280,000 (plus $40,000 each for any subsequent game he might not participate in). While that has no impact on the Patriots’ cap for this year, it will change his 2025 salary cap number; he stands to earn $850,000 in roster bonuses next year.

At the moment, only $500,000 of those will be labeled LTBE. The other $350,000 — i.e. $50,000 per game — will move to the not likely to be earned category, and reduce his currently projected 2025 salary cap number accordingly.

Peppers’ cap number next season will therefore be no higher than $6.65 million. All of that, of course, depends on his legal situation and whether or not he will actually be on the team in 2025.

Discipline still possible down the line

When the NFL announced that it had reinstated Peppers, it also revealed that its investigation into the matter remains ongoing. This means that he could still be subject to further discipline down the line.

All of that will likely depend on his jury trial set for January 22. If found guilty of any of the charges he is facing — assault and battery on an intimate partner, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, possession of a Class B drug (cocaine) — it is within the NFL’s discretion to react accordingly and impose further sanctions.

The same is true for the Patriots, whose stance is clear: if Peppers is found guilty of the assault charges in particular, he will not have a future with the organization.

“When you read the [police report] initially, it turns your stomach,” team owner Robert Kraft said in October. “Once he goes on the commissioner Exempt list, they do their independent checking. We’re doing ours. If what was reported is true, he’s gone.”