Darnell Mooney | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants are open to making trades to acquire draft capital in exchange for some surplus assets, head coach John Harbaugh said on Monday.
“If we could, we’d do as much as we possibly could,” Harbaugh said. “We’d like to take advantage of the opportunities if they come up as much as we can.”
The Giants were surprisingly able to trade guard Daniel Faalele to the Jacksonville Jaguars recently in exchange for a sixth-round pick.
“It’s not too often you can trade a player for a sixth-round pick in the middle of training camp,” Harbaugh said. “But sometimes teams have needs. And Daniel’s started many games in the National Football League. So they felt like that was valuable for them. With us, Daniel was doing well for the role he was going to be playing. And yet, we have other guys that were doing well, too.
“So it was a luxury for us.”
The idea that the Giants had the “luxury” of trading a surplus player because they had the depth to fill in behind him is not something a Giants coach has been able to say often over the past few seasons.
The Giants currently have seven selections in the 2027 NFL Draft. They are as follows, per Tankathon:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4 (projected compensatory)
Round 5
Round 6
Round 6 (from Jacksonville)
With rosters needing to be trimmed from 90 to 53 players by Sunday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. ET, teams will be looking to fill holes with experienced players. Do the Giants have any other players they might be willing to part with?
‘We do have some guys’
“We do have some guys,” Harbaugh said. “We’re kind of deep in a few positions, and maybe that’ll happen. It doesn’t happen that often, but maybe it will.”
The Baltimore Ravens, Harbaugh’s former employer, are well-known for collecting draft picks via trade or by manipulating the compensatory pick formula.
That is something Harbaugh would like the Giants to copy.
“Anytime you can add picks, it’s a valuable thing,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a future thing. It doesn’t seem like much now, but it’ll matter day three of the draft. It’ll be something that we’ll be happy we’ve got.”
Who could those guys be?
BBV’s Chris Pflum took a look at this last week after the Faalele trade. Here are some updated thoughts on players the Giants might be willing to move.
WR Darnell Mooney
The Giants have a logjam at wide receiver. If everyone remains healthy, it would be difficult to find roster spots for Odell Beckham Jr. and/or Dalen Cambre.
Mooney, who has 309 catches in a six-year NFL career, and Darius Slayton are similar receivers who would occupy a similar role in the Giants’ offense. Slayton carries a $12.25 million base salary, while Mooney has a guaranteed base salary of just $1.215 million, making Mooney much easier to trade.
RB Tyrone Tracy
The view here is that the Giants should keep Tracy on their 53-man roster, regardless of the miscues he made in the two preseason games this summer. He is the closest thing the Giants have to a game-breaking running back.
Still, the Giants do have Cam Skattebo, Najee Harris, and Devin Singletary. Could Tracy be deemed expendable for the right price?
PK Ben Sauls/CB Paulson Adebo
I put these guys together as they were the others mentioned last week by Chris. I don’t believe Sauls, who has missed far more kicks this summer than Dominic Zvada, has enough of an NFL resume to make teams want to give up assets for him. Adebo, after a slow start this summer, has been playing better and appears likely to be a starter. I don’t believe the Giants would trade him unless they received an overwhelming offer.