Hypothetically, of course.
Peppers admitted in open court he was in possession of cocaine for his personal use, and this was adjudicated in court. (This is not hypothetical, this happened)
Hypothetically, the Patriots would have been testing him from the moment he set foot back in the facility, outside of league tests.
Hypothetically, they hope he gets help, and don't want to ruin his life by pulling a Just Say No and leaking a positive test to the press.
Hypothetically, they were willing to find a trade partner if one was out there, and hypothetically, if Peppers had been able to avoid pissing dirty in mandatory tests, no one would have needed to know. No suspension, no cops.
Hypothetically, the Patriots knew this was an ongoing issue, and he was never going to start opening day, because hypothetically, there was a hypothetical positive test the week after the Minnesota trip.
Hypothetically, the reason Peppers played a good portion of the Giants game was to give him a chance to showcase to the league (and didn't do particularly well, honestly).
So hypothetically, the Patriots cut someone in order to avoid suspension and rehab during the season, hypothetically giving Peppers the chance to hypothetically get clean.
Hypothetically.
Hypothetically Giardi's 'no off-field issues' was a direct response from Hypothetically Wolf when asked a specific question about legal issues. In this hypothetical scenario, there are no legal issues.
All of this is hypothetical, of course, and shouldn't be accepted as fact. Hypothetically, don't be surprised if Peppers hypothetically has nothing very negative to say outside of very vague terms about his release.