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.