Jabrill Peppers was in obvious pain as he stood and spoke Sunday afternoon in the visitors’ locker room at Soldier Field. He was forced out of the Giants’ 19-14 loss to the Bears after getting hit while returning a kickoff on the final play of the first half. What was initially called a hip injury turned out to be something quite different. Peppers suffered a transverse process fracture, and his first season with the Giants could be finished.
The fracture is to one of the wing-like bones on the side of a vertebra in the spinal column. Peppers, acquired in the trade with the Browns that shipped Odell Beckham Jr. to Cleveland, started every game at strong safety before this setback.
When asked Monday if he expects this injury to end Peppers’ season, coach Pat Shurmur said, “I don’t.’’
“I guess he can return relative to pain tolerance,’’ Shurmur said. “He’s sore today and we don’t practice until Wednesday, so we’ll just have to see what the week brings.’’
Peppers had a 40-yard punt return earlier in the second quarter and, eager to get his hands on the ball again, convinced special teams coach Thomas McGaughey to have him replace Cody Latimer on the kickoff return that got Peppers hurt. It was his first kickoff return of the season and it went for 23 yards.
“That was actually my call,’’ Peppers said. “I was feeling it after the punt return. I felt I could have scored on the punt return, and I wanted to make something happen for the team. It does suck, but it is what it is. It could have happened on any play. That’s how I look at it.’’
The Giants seemingly cannot get out of a game without a player joining the concussion protocol. Receiver Golden Tate is there now after a hard landing in the end zone after making a leaping touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. So, on the day Sterling Shepard returned after missing the previous five games while in the concussion protocol, the Giants lost their other starting receiver.
“It was a really good play by him in the back of the end zone,’’ Daniel Jones said of Tate’s catch. “It gave us a chance to win the game, to get the ball back and have a chance to win the game. I thought he stepped up for us.”
This is the second concussion this season for Tate, who missed time in the preseason in the protocol. Russell Shepard, rehabbing from a foot issue and currently on injured reserve, is an option if Tate must miss time.
For more on the Giants, listen to the latest episode of the “Blue Rush” podcast:
