The Giants retained most of their important free agents, while letting go of older players to create cap space. Veteran players Sterling Shepard and Logan Ryan were the biggest cuts that the Giants felt they needed to make. This gave the Giants over 20 million in cap space to work with.
The biggest needs they had going into this offseason were linebacker, defensive tackle, and quarterback. In the first round of free agency they signed two back up players, C Wes Schweitzer and FS Kavon Frazier. With the rest of their cap space, instead of trying to outbid others for high priced free agents, they went on the move, talking to other teams about veteran linebackers. They were able to trade a 5th round pick to the Houston Texans for LOLB Zach Cunningham and traded the Seattle Seahawks pick 16, for pick 28 and MLB Bobby Wagner. These two trades bolstered their linebacking core, giving them two highly rated veterans who can help the defense tremendously.
Most mock drafts had the Giants taking a linebacker with their first pick, however, with those two trades the Giants had the luxury to go with the best player available on their board. The first round played out as unexpected as could be. This resulted in a top 10 quarterback reaching all the way to pick 23. Coach Burn knew that even with Jones still on the team, this was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. He decided to make the call to the Seahawks, offering pick 28, pick 79 and next year’s second for pick 23. The Seahawks accepted the offering and QB C.J Stroud was a New York Giant. With their second round pick the Giants ironically were able to select the same linebacker that they were going to originally pick with pick 16 in MLB Noah Sewell. The rest of the draft played out as normal and will be gone over in another article but for the Giants their first two selections were about as good as any team in the league.
This Giants offseason was about as good as could be. Going into preseason week one they feel as if they don’t have too many holes and the holes that they do have can be addressed by slotting different players into different positions. The future will tell if this draft was what the Giants truly needed but for the time being Coach Burn and company should feel very happy with what has transpired.
