What’s wrong with the New York Giants this year? Well, one of the more critical problems is their inability to keep all of their best players on the field – there’re injuries every season. Still, this year’s Giants have struggled with the matter more than usual, and the offense has been affected in particular, with Sterling Shepard, Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, and others missing time this year – sometimes at the same time.
This time, though, it’s the defense that’s being affected as one of the team’s most essential players in the secondary, Jabrill Peppers, could end up missing time. Peppers had to leave the Bears game in the third quarter due to hip injury, but more concerning, it looks like an extended time out may be on the cards. Peppers is heading in for an MRI on Monday, and according to Pat Leonard, was in a lot of pain from the injury.
Jabrill Peppers has an MRI on his hip tomorrow. He’s in a lot of pain. Says it was his call to jump on for that kick return because he was “feeling it” after the big punt return and he wanted to make something happen for the team. #Giants
— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) November 24, 2019
The secondary this season has already been one of the more maligned areas of the team, so it’s easy to imagine things won’t improve too much with a starter at an already thin position going out, potentially for more than one week. Peppers has, after all, held down his job and played in almost every defensive snap for the Giants this year.
If Peppers does have to spend an extended time out, we may see a new competition between Michael Thomas and Julian Love to replace him during the duration of his injury. Both players have shown up on a much lower percentage of the Giants’ defensive snaps than Peppers has, but Thomas received more consistent playing time earlier in the season, and Love had his first NFL interception during the Bears game after spending the previous games riding the bench.
Both players have their own merits, so it’s hard to see where the competition might go from here, but regardless, it looks like the Giants might be in a spot where they have to prepare for life without Peppers for a while if Monday’s MRI results aren’t good.