Pelissero: Brandin Echols Suspended Week One

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.