Why New York Giants Are Losers at Trade Deadline

The New York Giants aren’t mathematically out of the playoff race, but with a 2-7 record just past the halfway pole, it will take a miracle for them to come back from what has been yet another season that has gone up in smoke.

In that position, the Giants might be looking at the future, specifically the draft, where the foundation of teams is typically built. The more chips one has in the draft, the better, right?

Yet the Giants, despite having received inquiries about free-agents-to-be Azeez Ojulari and Darius Slayton, general manager Joe Schoen, not wanting to get fleeced in any deal (or perhaps not really wanting to trade either, which could be a possibility), set a rather rich price level for both players–reportedly a fourth for Ojulari, who probably had the better chance of being traded.

But with teams realizing that Ojulari could end up an eight-game rental before hitting free agency in search of the richest possible payday, those interested at the young pass rusher out of Georgia for a lower price told Schoen, “No thanks.”  

The Giants lost the NFL trade battle because Schoen has shown signs of struggling to value his players correctly. 

People will, for example, point to how he handled Saquon Barkley this past offseason in that he allowed the market to set Barkley’s price rather than taking the initiative out of concern that he might irk Barkley if the value was set too low. 

So, the Eagles, as they have done so often over the years on the field, took the lead against the Giants in that competition, coming out as the winners yet again, this time off the field, leaving the Giants, whose own free agency activity canceled out a comp pick for Barkley, to console themselves by thinking that the running back was on the decline because he had turned 27 years old.

The same thing has happened with Ojulari, with whom the Giants might have had a chance to re-sign in the offseason to a team-friendly deal so they had insurance behind Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux (plus a decent third pass rusher, which never hurts). 

Instead, Schoen not only declined to initiate extension talks with a productive young player at a position that doesn’t exactly grow on trees, but he is now in danger of losing the 24-year-old Ojulari, whose only issue has been a string of bad luck with his health the last two seasons, and has no guarantee of getting a comp pick for 2026 given the various factors that go into the formula.

(Side note: while some will point to Ojulari’s injury history, how does one then explain why Schoen gave an injury-prone Daniel Jones, who had more serious injuries over his career, an extension?)

Overall, it’s not smart roster management, and it’s hard not to be concerned about this team’s future unless Schoen starts being more realistic with some of his value assignments on certain players.