First-year New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen is accustomed to pulling off trades dating back to his days under Brandon Beane with the Buffalo Bills.
Now that Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll are in New Jersey to help return the Giants to relevance after five consecutive losing seasons, there’s an expectation that the two will be active on the trade block.
That could include moving one of their two top-10 picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. There’s also a recent report from NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport that the Giants will at least consider trading injury-plagued star running back Saquon Barkley.
Either way, this newly-formed Giants brass has no built-in relationship with its under-performing roster. It should lead to a lot of activity. Below, we look at three trades New York should consider making during the 2022 NFL offseason.
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New York Giants trade down from seventh selection, accumulate more draft capital
While Buffalo did make a few notable trades with Schoen in its front office, the team largely built through the draft. There’s every reason to believe that’s going to be his MO in New York. The good news? These Giants have an additional top-10 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft stemming from last spring’s deal that ultimately landed Justin Fields with the Chicago Bears.
There’s every reason to believe New York will look to move one of these selections in order to accumulate more draft picks and expedite its rebuild. Perhaps, another team is sold on a top quarterback in a weak class. That would give the Giants tremendous value in a move down from seven.
The Denver Broncos (ninth), Washington Commanders (11th), Minnesota Vikings (12th) and New Orleans Saints (18th) all need a young quarterback. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles boast three first-round picks (15th, 16th and 19th overall). Wouldn’t that be an interesting dynamic? For the sake of hypotheticals, we’ll say New York moves off the seventh pick with Philadelphia for the 16th and 19th selections.
Related: Full seven-round New York Giants 2022 NFL mock draft
New York Giants trade James Bradberry
New York currently finds itself in salary cap hell. The team is north of $11 million over the 2022 NFL salary cap. How the previous regime structured contracts places this new power tandem in a bad spot. In short, the Giants are unable to get out of the contracts of Leonard Williams, Kenny Golladay, Adoree Jackson and Logan Ryan due to the dead cap hits that would come with trading/releasing them.
Instead, the Giants might have to bite the bullet and trade one of their best defenders in James Bradberry. The 28-year-old cornerback is coming off a 2021 campaign that saw him record four interceptions while yielding a 62% completion percentage when targeted. He would have a nice amount of interest in the trade block — potentially netting New York a solid Day 2 selection. Said move would also save the Giants roughly $12 million against the cap. Expect Schoen and Co. to kick the tires on this possibility.
Related: Ideal Saquon Barkley trade scenarios from the New York Giants
New York Giants move off Saquon Barkley
In hindsight, one of the biggest mistakes of David Gettleman’s tenure as the Giants’ general manager was the decision to select Barkley No. 2 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. Outside of the lack of value that comes with picking a running back so high, New York ultimately missed out on the likes of quarterbacks Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
There’s a good chance this new regime will look to rectify that be getting some sort of value for the injury-plagued back. Said move would come costly with Barkley’s dead cap number being the same as his overall cap number ($7.22 million). New York also wouldn’t receive a ton of draft capital for a back who has been injury plagued over the past two seasons. Even then, Barkley is still only 25 years old and has proven to be dynamic.
- Saquon Barkley stats (2018-19): 2,310 rushing yards, 143 receptions, 1,159 receiving yards, 5.6 yards per touch, 23 TD
A team like the San Francisco 49ers might come calling by offering up a third-round pick in 2022 and a future mid-round selection for Barkley. If so, it would be hard for the New York Giants’ brass to pass up on that. After all, he’s not going to be the difference between bottom-feeding status and an expedited rebuild in Jersey.