ESPN Proposes Boldest Trade Down Scenario for Giants Yet

New York could certainly use more draft picks for the future, but would they entertain dropping to the bottom half of the first round to get them?

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen / Art Stapleton/NorthJersey.com / USA

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen wasn't putting up a smokescreen when, during his pre-draft press conference, he mentioned the team still has a lot of needs.

Schoen and the Giants' problem is to decide how to prioritize those needs with just six draft picks, especially if they want one of the top quarterbacks.

The answer would be to either stay put or look to trade down a bit with a team looking to move up in the first round. And to that end, ESPN's Bill Barnwell has one of the boldest trade scenarios yet involving the Giants, this one with the Buffalo Bills, who hold the 28th pick in the draft order.

In Barnwell's proposal, the Giants and Bill swap first-round picks. The Giants also get Buffalo's second-rounder ( No. 60), fourth-rounder (No. 128), their 2025 first-round pick owed via the Texans, and a 2026 third-round pick.

That's quite a haul to give up for a team with a franchise quarterback in Josh Allen. Still, Barnwell thinks that trading up to grab an elite receiver could entice Buffalo to make a move, noting how the Atlanta Falcons made a similar jump back in 2011 by trading from No. 26 to No. 6 to take receiver Julio Jones.

While the Bills might need a receiver, two things make this trade scenario a wild dream. First, this is a very deep class for receivers. While several might come off the board in the first round, the class is still deep enough to where the Bills probably don't have to give up the ranch to get a playmaker, not when they've done it before by grabbing former receiver Gabe Davis (now with the Jaguars) in the fourth round of the 2020 draft.

From the Giants perspective, they haven't had a legitimate No. 1 receiver since Odell Beckham, Jr. in 2018, the last receiver to have a 1,000-yard season. During his press briefing, Schoen admitted that adding a No. 1 receiver to the arsenal is certainly appealing.

"It can really help you out, especially the way we're constructed now," Schoen said, adding a No. 1 receiver. "Jalin Hyatt can take the top off, Wan'Dale working in the slot. I think you can see what he was able to do late in the season when he was finally healthy. Darius Slayton has been uber-consistent during his time.

"If you add another wide receiver there, whether it's in the top 10 or later in the draft because of the depth of the class, I do think it gives you options, and it's going to help the offense in general. We have to score more. At the end of the day, we need to score more points. Adding, if it's a No. 1 receiver, whatever you want to call it, just a better receiving weapon will help everybody."

(Including whoever the quarterback might be. But I digress.)

From the Giants' perspective, the additional draft capital would give Schoen more flexibility to move around the board than he has right now. As Barnwell notes, it would also give the Giants additional draft capital under cost-controlled rookie contracts, allowing the team to continue its building process correctly.

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