Jabrill Peppers walked to the podium with a strut and a smile. He wore a gold-colored chain and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut, and soon he would be putting on pads and hitting people for the first time in a Giants uniform — a fact not lost on him.
“Camp is different, man,” he said.
Peppers is the Giants’ second-most heralded acquisition this offseason, and for the near future, their most important. At 23 years old, the franchise wants the safety to backstop its defense for the foreseeable future. He still carries a rookie-scale contract, and when coach Pat Shurmur breaks the new faces on defense into groups of veterans and rookies, it’s unclear which group Peppers falls into.
To him, that’s a moot point.
“Age doesn’t really matter,” Peppers said. “It’s just how fast you can acclimate.”
So, how is he acclimating?
“Just really getting to know the guys. That’s really it,” Peppers said. “There’s always a sense of comfort from my first day here. But you just gotta get to know the guys, the coaches. I’m from the area, so it’s not like I have to get acclimated to a new area. Facilities here are top-notch and football is football, man. You’re gonna go hard or you’re not.”
His answer gets at one of the two lenses through which his time in East Rutherford will be viewed. Just five years ago, he was the third-ranked high school recruit in the country, playing 25 minutes up the road at Paramus Catholic. On Thursday, Peppers got a question about family being able to see him play at training camp and brushed it off. It won’t be the last of those questions.
The other tunnel to look down is unspoken and currently suiting up for Browns training camp in Berea, Ohio. Peppers, along with two draft picks, made up the haul GM Dave Gettleman got back for Odell Beckham Jr. in March. Beckham’s departure hasn’t stopped anyone from thinking about him, or asking questions that get at his departure and its impact. Ultimately, though, the trade will be judged on what he does in Cleveland and what Peppers — who Gettleman cast as a second first-round pick in the deal — does in New York.
Standing in front of a microphone Thursday, though, things haven’t gotten complicated yet. The focus is instead on what two years in Cleveland taught Peppers and how he’s changed his routines since high school. He talked about keeping a patch on to see what he needs to drink and when, and how he’ll compete with Evan Engram at practice. A few hours later, Peppers left practice early with cramps and it’s as small a deal as you’d think.
“There really hasn’t been too much of a culture shock, anything too difficult,” Peppers said. “Just do what I gotta do.”
If only it were that simple.
