The time for a blockbuster trade at the top of the NFL Draft is getting closer. Whether the Giants plan to participate in one of those deals remains to be seen.
The exciting part about Joe Schoen being the team’s GM, though, is that he is the type of thorough operator who will make those phone calls. He will entertain those scenarios.
He has the confidence to swing big if he believes it will land him the player he covets.
In this case, a trade-up would mean a move to go get a quarterback. And Schoen said at the NFL Owners Meetings that from his vantage point, all of the top three teams are still open to having a conversation with prospective trade partners.
“Nobody is slamming the door,” Schoen said of the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots, respectively. “Everybody is going to listen. I think No. 1 through No. 3, those teams all traded quarterbacks, and there’s a narrative out there that they may take a quarterback. So we’ll see.”
Schoen fascinatingly tried to distance himself from the quarterback hype, it seemed, by pushing back against the noise and speculation about the Giants’ plans for the No. 6 overall pick.
“Some of the noise that’s out there, we don’t even — I don’t know where some of it comes from,” Schoen said. “It’s just all – a lot of it’s not true. Anything that’s out there. There are very few people that know what we’re thinking or what direction we’re going. Anything that is out there is likely not true.”
He insisted the Giants are “looking at every scenario,” including trading back.
“We can go either way,” he said. “We can go up. We can go back… There’s a lot of strategy involved… I think [Chargers coach] Jim Harbaugh said it today: If quarterbacks go Nos. 1 through 4, at 5 they’re getting the best non-quarterback position player in the draft, and we’re in a good position at 6.
“So, I think there’s going to be a good player there,” he added. “We’ll look at all options, whether it’s going up, back, staying. Ultimately, I think we’ll end up with a good player.”
Still, the Giants are behaving like a team that is keen on drafting a QB.
John Mara said “they tell me it’s the most talented [quarterback] group to come out in years.” The co-owner endorsed picking a QB at the top of the draft if Schoen and Brian Daboll wish.
And the Giants are expending significant resources on taking close looks at all of the top passers.
That included a private J.J. McCarthy workout that sources said went well at Michigan on Easter Sunday, a trip to Jayden Daniels’ LSU pro day, a meaningful Washington visit with Michael Penix Jr., and plans for a workout with North Carolina’s Drake Maye.
Teams do not go through this kind of process to create a smokescreen. They do it because they have a need and interest at the sport’s most important position.
It is unfortunately possible that the Giants’ handful of wins late last season might have pushed them out of striking distance for the quarterbacks they prefer when it’s all said and done. Unless they’re eyeing Penix at No. 47 overall in the second round.
But that can’t prevent the Giants from doing their homework, ranking their preferences and poking around with other teams. Because as Schoen outlined, the college pro day circuit is only just now wrapping up.
So most teams aren’t completing their evaluations until these first few weeks of April on the draft’s doorstep. That means most GMs are still weighing their options and listening.
“If you are going to go up for that position in particular, you need to be around them,” Schoen said of the quarterbacks. “I think a lot of the teams are going through, especially in the top three, a process of getting around these kids… I think if anything is going to happen up there, that will start happening probably over the next couple of weeks. But I think closer to the draft, that’s probably when something will definitely happen, if those teams are going to move.”
And yet, it is difficult to envision the Bears, Commanders or Patriots from moving down.
Chicago is a “slam dunk” to draft USC quarterback Caleb Williams at No. 1, one NFL coach believed on Monday, after trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s a shame for the Giants, considering how closely Schoen was on Williams’ scouting trail last fall.
Washington dealt young QB Sam Howell to Seattle and has a gaping hole on its depth chart alongside veteran signing Marcus Mariota with new GM Adam Peters, coach Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury poised to reset with their own guy.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said after trading Mac Jones and signing veteran Jacoby Brissett, “one way or another, I’d like to see us get a top-rate young quarterback” in this draft.
Maybe that means Schoen will be shut out of the top three. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t slide up to No. 4 with Arizona or flip to No. 5 with the Chargers, though, to protect his turf if his preferred passer is still on the board.
The Minnesota Vikings are viewed as a possible threat to charge ahead of the Giants’ pick from No. 11 overall after acquiring No. 23, as well, in a trade with the Houston Texans. The Denver Broncos at No. 12 and Las Vegas Raiders at No. 13 are also sniffing around QBs.
Schoen already traded away the No. 39 overall pick in this year’s second round for Panthers pass rusher Brian Burns. That eliminated a key possible trade chip in a move up for a QB, if he were planning on trading up to No. 3 with the Patriots, for example – like the Jets’ 2018 trade of three second-round picks to make the same move for Sam Darnold.
But in 2017, for example, the Chicago Bears traded up one spot from No. 3 overall to No. 2 to take quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. They gave the San Francisco 49ers their No. 3 pick, a third and fourth-rounder in that same draft and a future third in 2018, as well.
That’s a price the Giants could stomach. It wouldn’t empty the vault-like last year’s embarrassing Carolina Panthers move up from No. 9 to No. 1 with Chicago to take Alabama QB Bryce Young No. 1 overall:
The Panthers traded the No. 9 overall pick, the No. 61 pick in the second round, this year’s first-round pick, next year’s second-rounder and wide receiver D.J. Moore. They later fired their coach and GM.
That is certainly a cautionary tale if the Giants were to entertain trading away next year’s first-round pick in a charge up this year’s draft board — particularly with the Vegas sportsbooks projecting the Giants at 6.5 wins for 2024.
“If you are Arizona, you are in good shape at quarterback, and I think the Chargers, they’re in good shape,” Schoen said of Kyler Murray and Justin Herbert. “If …whoever those teams are want to come up, I think [the Cardinals and Charger are] in good shape where they could also pick a good player or move back.”
Ultimately, Schoen could take a wide receiver or an offensive lineman at No. 6. Or maybe he will trade back. After all, remember, he said very few people know what he’s thinking. And any information out there is “likely not true.”
But make no mistake: Schoen and the Giants have spent an enormous amount of time and resources on the top quarterbacks of this draft. And they are behaving like a team that intends to select one.
The question seems to be what lengths they will go — or even can go — to get their man.
