Arizona Cardinals "Open for Business" Regarding Fourth Overall Pick

How does this impact the Giants, and what might it cost to move up?

The Arizona Cardinals have made it known that they'll entertain trade offers for the fourth overall pick in next month's draft--and that could be a good thing for the New York Giants.

“There will be a big neon sign that says ‘open’ and I don’t like it blinking; it messes with my eyes. But we’re always going to be listening,” said Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort Wednesday. 

“I think we’ll always have the conversation--we may not get to a point where a deal makes sense, whether it’s at [No.] 4 or anywhere we’re picking, but we’re always going to have the conversation, and if it makes sense, if it’s attractive to building our team, then it’s something that we’ll certainly consider no matter where we’re at in the draft.”

Arizona is apparently ready to run it back with Kyler Murray as quarterback. Since the franchise is continuing its rebuild, gaining additional draft capital would help with that objective.

So, what does this have to do with the Giants? General manager Joe Schoen, who has repeatedly stated that the team plans to run it back this year with Daniel Jones at quarterback once Jones is recovered from a torn ACL, has left the door open regarding possibly adding a quarterback in the draft, something that's not believed to have changed even with the addition of veteran Drew Lock in free agency.

The Giants' biggest concern with Jones remains his injury history, particularly his two neck injuries over the last three seasons. But there have also been indications that the team still believes Jones is closer to the player everyone saw in 2022 than the guy he was in an injury-shortened 2023 season.

That has raised the question of whether the team might wait until Day 2 to hire a quarterback or if there is a greater sense of urgency. 

The Giants would be rolling the dice if they were to punt on a quarterback, largely due to Jones's injury history and playing style. Even if they were to draft a quarterback in the first round, chances are that kid would sit for most of the coming year to fine-tune his game while the rest of the team jells.

But then there are arguments that the Giants would be better off taking a receiver at No. 6. A receiver would not only be able to help the team right away regardless of who the quarterback is, but the Giants can probably get one of Rome Odunze, Marvin Harrison, Jr., or Maik Nabers if they stay put.

Using the Jimmy Johnson trade value chart, there is a difference of 200 value points between the fourth and sixth picks. Theoretically, it should take Picks 6 and 70 for the Giants to make up the difference to jump up if they wanted to, but the wild card here is the Minnesota Vikings, who have two first-round picks and are in even greater need of a quarterback at this point.  

The decision is going to be an interesting one for Schoen, who is under pressure to get the roster fixed so that it can start to show some progress. Obviously, hitching his wagon to a new quarterback could help buy both him and head coach Brian Daboll some more time with ownership, but Schoen might feel that with the upgrades to the offensive line, a receiver makes the most sense regardless of who's under center.

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