Jabrill Peppers was the emotional heartbeat of last season’s Giants defense to an extent.
He is loud on the field. He hates to lose. The team’s resilience after last year’s 0-5 start was reflective of leaders like Peppers not quitting.
He never came off the field last season. His teammates have voted him a captain for two straight years for a reason.
“Having Pep on the field, he does add a physical [element] to our defense because I feel like he’s our enforcer,” corner James Bradberry said after Tuesday’s practice. “He definitely adds a different element to our defense if he’s on the field.”
In Sunday’s 27-13 Week 1 loss to the Denver Broncos, however, Peppers played only 30 of 66 defensive snaps, relegated to a bit player after never coming off the field a year ago.
And he admitted on Tuesday that it wasn’t easy, even though it was the game plan going in.
“It’s different,” Peppers said, stewing a bit.
Is it hard to be his typical self if he’s constantly going in and out?
“You could say that,” Peppers said.
Was it hard to watch the defense struggle from the sideline and not be able to help consistently?
“That’s fair to say,” Peppers said.
To be clear, Peppers admitted he didn’t play well when he was in the game, either. He called his performance “subpar.”
“I gave up two big third downs,” he said. “I gave up a catch in the red zone. Those are routes I usually cover in my sleep. I just gotta go back to the drawing board, hone in and get better.”
Still, when the person playing ahead of Peppers is slot corner Darnay Holmes, that’s where it has to be hard for Peppers to stay quiet.
Holmes, the Giants’ 2020 fourth-round pick, can’t cover. He is a liability. The plan was for him not to be on the field this season, but he’s out there now by necessity.
The Giants traded up in the third round of April’s NFL Draft to draft slot corner Aaron Robinson out of Central Florida. He was going to play ahead of Holmes.
The severity of Robinson’s spring injury flew under the radar for a while, mostly because Joe Judge and the Giants successfully kept it quiet when he underwent core muscle surgery.
But now that Robinson is out at least six weeks on the physically unable to perform list, the Giants don’t have an answer in the slot. They tried to use Julian Love to spell a struggling Holmes last in Sunday’s first half, but he was targeted for gains, too.
Peppers’ role has been squeezed because the Giants extended safety Logan Ryan in December and are now playing second-year safety Xavier McKinney deep.
Peppers is in the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, acquired from Cleveland in the 2019 Odell Beckham Jr. trade.
In the current setup, Peppers probably would be better served playing as a roving second inside linebacker next to Blake Martinez. Reggie Ragland isn’t getting it done.
Judge and defensive coordinator Pat Graham did use Peppers more exclusively on run downs and take him off the field when Denver went three-wide. But when Peppers was on the field, former Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was going right at him for big completions to tight ends, namely Noah Fant.
Several of the Giants’ bigger names struggled against the Broncos, though. Middle linebacker Blake Martinez had a team-high three missed tackles, including one a touchdown, per Pro Football Focus. Bradberry allowed 6-of-7 completions for 65 yards and a TD, per PFF.
“I didn’t play my best,” Bradberry admitted Tuesday.
Peppers wants to help. He played 98% of the Giants’ defensive snaps in his 13 healthy games last season, including 100% of the snaps in eight different games.
But he said his playing time isn’t up to him. It’s up to Judge.
The head coach attributed Peppers’ lack of time to managing his workload and keeping him fresh for other roles, like returning punts, but Peppers said that just comes down to conditioning.
“That’s week to week,” Peppers said of the game plan. “That’s something you gotta talk to Joe about. I gotta do whatever’s best for the team.”