According to Tom Pelissero, New York Jets cornerback Brandin Echols has been suspended for the first game of the 2023 season by the NFL due to a violation of the personal conduct policy. The suspension is related to Echols’ involvement in a high-speed car crash in 2022. Echols was accepted into a pretrial intervention program earlier this year, a move that is expected to result in the dismissal of the assault by auto charges against him according to Lori Comstock with the New Jersey Herald.
The NFL suspended #Jets DB Brandin Echols for the first game of the 2023 season, per the wire.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 25, 2023
New York Jets’ cornerback Brandin Echols, who in 2021 was thrust into the spotlight as a promising rookie, was accepted in a diversionary program to avoid assault by auto charges in a high-speed crash in Florham Park in 2022 that partially paralyzed another man.
Echols, 25, a sixth-round draft pick out of Kentucky, was admitted into the pretrial intervention (PTI) program for three years by state Superior Court Judge Noah Franzblau, in Morris County, during a tense Feb. 28 hearing that, in a rare move, allowed the injured driver to speak to the April 22, 2022 two-vehicle crash that he called a “near-fatal real life nightmare.”
Florham Park Police in January charged Echols with the fourth-degree crime and issued him several motor vehicle summonses for reckless driving, speeding, unsafe lane change, improper passing and failure to wear a seatbelt, according to police records obtained by the Daily Record.
Multiple witnesses observed Echols’ sedan travel at a high rate of speed prior to the crash and police say an investigation found Echols was traveling at a speed of 84 mph — over the 50 mph speed limit — five seconds before impact, records show.
