Giants’ NFL draft day trade efforts for Drake Maye fail to move Patriots off No. 3

All of the teams who needed a quarterback on Thursday got one except the Giants.

Giants GM Joe Schoen reportedly tried one last time while the New England Patriots were on the clock at No. 3 overall to trade up for North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. But he wasn’t able to land New York’s preferred QB.

So six teams left with QBs in the top 12 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft, but the Giants weren’t one of them.

When asked if he were still looking for a QB at No. 47 overall in the second round on Friday, or comfortable with Daniel Jones, Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito in his QB room, Schoen doubled down on the incumbents:

“I’m comfortable where we are,” he said.

His actions earlier hadn’t demonstrated exactly that, however.

“The Giants did try to trade up to No. 3 to take Drake Maye,” NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday night. “The Vikings and Giants made one last-ditch effort to the Patriots to try to get them off the No. 3 overall pick.”

Schoen was not willing in his Thursday press conference to confirm what had transpired before the Patriots made the pick.

“I said last week we were gonna have conversations in front of us,” he said. “We actually had conversations behind us. There was an opportunity for us to move out of the pick. We had conversations. We had different plans in place. And we’re ecstatic to have Malik Nabers here.”

Schoen wanted to keep the focus on the player he landed, not the player he failed to obtain.

“We had a lot of conversations with a lot of teams,” he said. “I’m not gonna get into specifics. And we got a really good player at six that was a position that I think was a need we needed to upgrade. And I’m ecstatic to have Malik here. I’m really fired up about the kid.”

The Giants stick out like a sore thumb among the teams that needed a QB entering the draft, though, in not landing one.

The Chicago Bears took USC’s Caleb Williams No. 1 overall. The Washington Commanders picked LSU’s Jayden Daniels at No. 2. The Patriots selected Maye.

And then after the Giants passed on a passer, the Atlanta Falcons got Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8, the Minnesota Vikings got Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy at No. 10 and the Denver Broncos picked Oregon’s Bo Nix at No. 12.

The question now is whether Schoen and Brian Daboll still intend to draft a QB like South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, Tennessee’s Joe Milton III, Tulane’s Michael Pratt or Florida State’s Jordan Travis – or if they truly intend to roll into 2024 with their current group.

Jones has a $35.5 million fully guaranteed salary for 2024. None of his $30 million salary in 2025 is guaranteed. But $23 million of it becomes guaranteed if he gets hurt playing in a game this season, practicing or working out on the Giants’ grounds.