jabrill peppers giants
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Jabrill Peppers is one of the individuals the Giants could part ways with ahead of the NFL’s Nov. 2 trade deadline.

The trade deadline is approaching. Winning teams could explore the market for beneficial additions to the roster while losing teams, such as the Giants (currently), could send players off for extra draft capital.

There are a number of players the Giants could part ways with — safety Jabrill Peppers may find himself in that category. New York is 1-4 in the midst of a tough portion of its schedule, and continued losing could lead to Big Blue giving up Peppers in his third season with the team.

The young safety, however, knows his only responsibility is to focus on the task at hand.

This week, that task is Sunday’s meeting with the Los Angeles Rams.

“Whatever happens happens,” Peppers said, per Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “I’m here to stay. I want to win. So that’s where my mind is.”

“I control what I can control,” he added. “That’s coming in here with the best mindset and doing whatever I can to help this team win. At the end of the day, we all know this is a brutal business, so I don’t try to get into all that.”

The possible return

If the Giants were to trade Peppers, the likely return would be a fifth-round pick at best. Peppers is injury-prone (he’s missed time in four of his five NFL seasons) and has an expiring contract. If you can remember, the Giants picked up Peppers’ fifth-year option back in 2020, so his current deal runs out at the conclusion of this season. He’s also really just a box safety who can be a pass-coverage liability.

Sure, the Jets received multiple picks, including two first-rounders, for Jamal Adams, also a box safety who struggles in coverage. However, Peppers isn’t at the same level as Adams (in regards to talent) and the Jets absolutely won that deal. Joe Douglas fleeced Seattle and earned valuable draft capital for his rebuilding franchise while the Seahawks were put in the position where they had to sign a safety with limited ability to a $70 million extension (which they did in August).

If you understand positional value in this league, you know the Giants don’t deserve a great deal of draft capital for Peppers — it’s just not how the trade market is supposed to work.

As stated before, this may be Peppers’ final year in blue anyway, unless the Giants franchise tag him for 2022. But if Jabrill isn’t going to be worth the long-term money that he may desire, the organization might be better off sending him away and moving forward with 2020 second-round pick Xavier McKinney, who’s obviously still on his rookie deal. Safety Julian Love is also on his rookie contract, which expires at the end of next season.

Follow Ryan Honey on Twitter: @RyanHoneyESNY

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Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.