Jabrill Peppers was dealt a sudden injury just two days ahead of the New England Patriots' season-opening win over the Cincinnati Bengals and had to go to an unusual length in order to play.

The Patriots safety was added to the injury report on Saturday due to a hip injury. Peppers was listed as questionable to play, but the way he described his injury made it sound like a surprise that he suited up for Sunday's 16-10 win.

“I kind of landed funny [at Friday's practice],” Peppers told reporters of his hip injury after the win.  “I kind of felt it, but later on that night, I really couldn’t sleep. I was up all night, probably only got like two hours of sleep on Friday. Came in, couldn’t really walk Saturday morning. And I didn’t know that they had to list me as whatever they listed me as. I attacked the treatment, and they had a good game plan for me.”

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Peppers notified the team of the pain when he arrived at Gillette Stadium ahead of the team's flight to Cincinnati on Saturday. When they got to Cincinnati, Peppers had to get treatment, but not in an ordinary place.

“Had to go to the Holiday Inn across the street to use the pool, get my legs going and everything,” Peppers said.

Even though Peppers was listed as questionable for Sunday's game, he was willing to do whatever it took to play on Sunday – even if it meant traveling to a separate hotel in order to get treatment.

“There was no way I was going to miss the first game of the season, my leg would have had to fall off to miss that,” Peppers said.

It was a good thing for the Patriots that Peppers was willing to put in whatever work was necessary to play in Sunday's game. He was one of their most productive players, recording six combined tackles, making a pair of stops that would lead to Bengals punts.

Jabrill Peppers impresses Patriots' teammates with toughness

New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers (5) celebrates following the win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

Peppers was named a defensive captain earlier in the week, marking the first time that he's been captain in his three seasons with the Patriots. Jerod Mayo and  Patriots players have praised Peppers for his leadership since he joined the team in 2022. Now, they're hailing him for his toughness after battling through a tough hip injury on Sunday.

“I would say at this point, nothing ‘Brill does is surprising,” Ja’Whaun Bentley said of Peppers gutting through his hip injury. “The stuff that he’s able to fight through, and his grit and his tenacity and his intensity, it just trickles off to the defense, even I found myself paying attention to what he’s doing, and we all just feed off of that every day. …  You’re not going to have the juice — quote, unquote — every single day. That’s why you lean on each other. You’ve got 11 different guys.

“You just lean on each other. If you ain’t got it, we know he got it. … Whether it’s physical or mental, things happen in the game, that adversity, you got to be able to lean on each other. And it’s proven each and every day in practice. It starts on the practice field, and we just hope every day: process, progress, pay off. That’s what we preach in our building. That’s what we show today.”

Bentley and the rest of the Patriots will get to sell Peppers back in action when New England takes on the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2.