Giants' Jabrill Peppers content with trade from Browns

Jabrill Peppers was sitting at home scrolling through Twitter when he came across the headline.

"I saw it and I was actually excited about the trade," he recalled on Friday. "I’m thinking, ‘We just got Odell!’"

Then he kept looking at the reports.

"And it’s like ‘Aw, [expletive]! I’m not even here no more!’"

Peppers, who had played the first two years of his NFL career with the Browns, was a piece of the deal that brought him, Kevin Zeitler and two draft picks to the Giants and sent Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon to Cleveland. It was a blockbuster trade in March 2019, the repercussions of which continue to be felt for both franchises.

On Sunday, they’ll meet on the field for the first time since the historic swap.

Beckham won’t play. He’s on injured reserve with a torn ACL he suffered earlier this season. Oshane Ximines, one of the players the Giants selected with the third-rounder they received in the package, is also out after having shoulder surgery a few weeks ago.

But for the rest of those whose careers and lives were altered by that trade, Sunday is a chance to finally show the other side what they missed out on.

In Peppers’ case, it’s an opportunity to show the Browns that they misused him early in his career and that he has developed into one of the Giants’ best defenders and most versatile players. Peppers, it turned out, was a huge part of the negotiations for the Giants. Had the Browns not let him come to New York, there might not have been a trade at all.

Asked if he is a different player from the one the Browns knew, he said: "Absolutely. I’m being played to my strengths here. I thank the Giants for believing in me and seeing my potential. I’m just doing my due diligence to make them look good."

The headliner of the trade was, of course, Beckham. It’s one of the reasons why Sunday’s game was circled on so many calendars as soon as the schedule was released in the spring. Even without him, though, the game was flexed to a prime-time kickoff between two teams fighting for playoff spots. In that regard, both teams have won.

The Giants have moved on from Beckham in many ways. There are only 12 players on the current roster who played with him in New York. Only four of those were with the Giants before Beckham’s ankle injury early in the 2017 season. For many in the locker room, Beckham is better known as a TV pitchman than a teammate.

"The guys who played with him said that they liked him, they hated to see him get traded," second year defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said. When those conversations take place, Lawrence said, "I’ll throw in and say: ‘Hey! That was for me!’"

Lawrence was the player the Giants selected with the first-round pick they received in the trade.

In many ways, the organizations have moved on from the trade. Of the four head coaches and general managers for the teams that agreed to the swap, only one — Giants general manager Dave Gettleman — is still with the same team.

"I’d say this: I’m very happy that Peppers is here with us and Zeitler, as well," Giants head coach Joe Judge, who was an assistant with the Patriots at the time of the trade, said this week. "I’m really glad those guys are part of our team, that that was able to happen, that we have them here."

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski? He obviously knows the trade took place but he gave it little to no thought at the time.

"I would be lying if I said I could remember," he said when asked what he thought of the blockbuster. "I don’t know."

He does appreciate the one still-active piece the Browns received from the Giants, though.

"He is playing a lot for us," he said of Vernon. "There are games where he is not coming off of the field. He plays very hard. He is a very, very smart player. He understands different schemes that people are trying to attack us and does a nice job. He has given us everything he has."

There are other non-trade connections between the Browns and Giants that just a few days ago did not seem as significant as they now appear to be. Former Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens, now the Giants’ tight ends coach, will be the offensive play-caller on Sunday because coordinator Jason Garrett tested positive for COVID-19. "It’s ironic," he said. And the Giants might wind up starting Colt McCoy at quarterback for the injured Daniel Jones. McCoy was a third-round pick of the Browns in 2010. Twenty-one of his 29 career starts came in his first two seasons in Cleveland.

McCoy, though, is beyond using revenge or feeling aggrieved as a motivator having since played in San Francisco and Washington since his departure from the Browns after the 2012 season before landing with the Giants this season.

"The fans and the people in Cleveland are awesome," he said. "My wife and I really enjoyed our time there. We just didn’t win enough."

Few in Cleveland have. Peppers and Zeitler did not. They were both part of the 0-16 team there.

Now they are with the Giants and facing the Browns.

Peppers insisted he will not be extra amped up to face his former team.

"I’m not going to do anything abnormal or anything I haven’t been doing during the season," he said. "It is what it is. That’s the nature of this league. You can’t take it personal. But I’m happy with the outcome. It’s working out for me. I’m back home [as a New Jersey native]. I’m comfortable. And I get to play for a historic organization.

"I’m not tripping off it one bit."

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.