No Deal! Giants Stand Pat at 2024 NFL Trade Deadline

The New York Giants reportedly had interest from other teams in outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari and receiver Darius Slayton, both of whom will be unrestricted free agents after this season. 

Ultimately, general manager Joe Schoen had his price point for each and would not be persuaded to move them for anything less. Thus, the speculation and intrigue of the 2024 NFL trading period, which has now officially passed, ended. 

Schoen, the third-year general manager, was believed to have wanted a low fourth-round pick for Ojulari, who is two sacks shy of his single-season career high of 8.0 and is only 24 years old. Ojualri has recorded 5.0 sacks in his last four games as a fill-in for Kayvon Thibodeaux, who is on injured reserve recovering from wrist surgery.

Ojulari, the team’s second-round pick in 2021, has had injury issues that have caused him to miss chunks of playing time over the last two seasons. When the team acquired Brian Burns via trade from the Panthers, Ojulari was reduced to a spot pass rusher role, one in which he’s thrived this year.

Slayton, meanwhile, is currently second on the team in receiving yards (469) behind rookie Malik Nabers. Back in training camp, he competed with second-year receiver Jalin Hyatt for a spot in the starting offense, but Hyatt was unable to beat him out. 

Slayton, a deep threat who has led the Giants in receiving yardsage in four of the last five seasons, sought to get his contract extended this past spring but instead agreed to a modified deal built on incentives.

With the Giants failing to get additional draft capital for next year, the bet they can hope for, assuming both Ojulari and Slayton leave via free agency after this year, is to get comp picks for 2026. 

While that wouldn’t help them for 2025–and comp picks aren’t necessarily guaranteed since they depend on multiple factors–it could still allow the Giants to package trade picks if they intend to move up in next year’s draft because by then, they would have a rough idea as to what they stand to gain in terms of comp picks for 2026.