Success of ex-Giants deepens misery for New York, and GM Joe Schoen

With so many former New York Giants enjoying tremendous success this season with new teams it has become fashionable to wonder what might have been had the Giants been able to keep most, if not all, of those players. And to bash GM Joe Schoen for letting them go.

Let’s go back and look at six of the players Schoen has let go since becoming Giants’ GM in January of 2022. We’ll look at each decision, whether it was avoidable, and ultimately whether or not it has worked out for the Giants.

CB James Bradberry

Schoen released the veteran Bradberry because he desperately needed the $10.1 million in salary cap savings as he tried to dig out of the financial mess he inherited. The Giants had only a shade above $5 million in space at the time, and needed far more than that to sign their rookie class and get through the 2022 season.

It stunk that Bradberry signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and had a great season, ending up as a second-team All-Pro. Bradberry was terrible in 2023 and was moved to safety this year before landing on IR. He hasn’t played a down.

Verdict: This was the right move. It was really one Schoen had no choice but to make.

TE Evan Engram

From a Giants’ perspective, it stinks that Engram had to go somewhere else to become the player then-GM Jerry Reese thought he could be when he made Engram his final first-round pick in 2017.

Engram was, at times, a dynamic receiving tight end for the Giants. At times, his penchant for drops — especially costly drops and fumbles at critical moments — turned him into a target for frustrated fans.

Engram has had the best two seasons of his career since joining the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Verdict: This was the right move — for both sides. Engram needed a fresh start and has probably benefitted from the low-key atmosphere in Jacksonville. The Giants were also starting over, and letting Engram go was best for them.

S Julian Love

In his first three seasons with the Giants, there was always a belief that the versatile former fourth-round pick could be more than the Giants were letting him be. He finally got to start full time in 2022, delivered a breakout season and capitalized on that by signing a two-year, $12 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks. He made the Pro Bowl in 2023 and has signed signed a three-year, $36 million extension with Seattle.

The Giants made an effort to sign Love. Per The Athletic, they offered him a three-year, $22.5 million deal during the 2022 season. Love thought he could do better in free agency the following offseason.

It turned out he could not, but by the time Love’s reps presented the offer to the Giants they chose not to match even though that was less money than what they had reportedly offered him.

Verdict: This was unfortunate because Love is a good player it would have helped the Giants to keep. I don’t think it falls into the “mistake” category because the Giants made Love a quality offer in 2022. He rejected it, chose free agency, and when players have options sometimes they move on.

DL Leonard Williams

The Giants traded Williams to the Seahawks at the 2023 NFL trade deadline for a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick. The Giants looked at Williams as an excellent player, but nearing 30 and having missed games to injury for the first time in his career in 2022 not one they wanted to invest big money in keeping as he would have headed to free agency at the end of that season.

Williams got a three-year, $64.5 million contract with $26.2 million guaranteed from the Seahawks this offseason. The Giants weren’t going anywhere near that.

A reminder: Fans were incensed by Dave Gettleman trading for Williams and then again by the three-year, $63 million contract ($45 million guaranteed) that Gettleman gave him. The Seahawks gave up two picks and then paid Williams even more than Gettleman did.

Williams is having an excellent season, his most productive since his career-best 11.5-sack year with the Giants in 2020. It is embarrassing that Big Cat has a Pick 6 and the Giants’ secondary doesn’t even have an interception this season.

Verdict: Mixed. Trading Williams was the right move. It is probably something Schoen should have done this season with Azeez Ojulari and Darius Slayton, though neither would have brought anything close to the return the Giants got for Williams.

The trade allowed the Giants to swap a second-round pick for Brian Burns, an excellent player who is four years younger than Williams. They used the second-round pick on safety Tyler Nubin. Also a good thing.

The problem is that Schoen has added nothing to the defensive line to fill that void and help Dexter Lawrence. After losing Williams via trade and A’Shawn Robinson via free agency, the only 2024 addition was undrafted free agent Elijah Chatman.

The highest draft pick Schoen has used on a defensive lineman is a 2022 fifth-rounder on D.J. Davidson.

The GM has to do a better job stocking one of the most important positions on the field. The Giants’ porous run defense is at least in part of a consequence of neglecting to do so.

RB Saquon Barkley

Week after week, Barkley is embarrassing the Giants. He leads the league in rushing yards with a career-high 1,499 after just 12 games. Barkley is on pace for 2,123 rushing yards, which would break the NFL single-season record of 2,105 set in a 16-game season by Eric Dickerson in 1984.

Barkley is averaging 124.9 rushing yards per game, best in the NFL. Each week he seems to do something spectacular.

It is important to acknowledge that Barkley was not going to do the kinds of things with the Giants this season that he is doing with the Eagles. In 14 games last season, he had 247 carries. In 12 games this year, he has 246. Check out the productivity table below:

Barkley 2023 vs. 2024

Year	Rushing attempts	Yards	Touchdowns	Success%	Yards/Carry	Yards/Game
Year	Rushing attempts	Yards	Touchdowns	Success%	Yards/Carry	Yards/Game
2023	247	962	6	40.1	3.9	68.7
2024	246	1,499	11	55.7	6.1	124.9

The total yards, yards per carry, yards per game, touchdowns and success rate all career highs. With surroundings in Philly that he would not have had in New York Barkley’s considerable talents are shining.

The Giants tried three times to get Barkley to sign a long-term deal. They made him an offer during the 2022 season that was reported to be $13 million annually for three years, basically the same total deal he got from the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason. At the time, Barkley reportedly wanted more per year, and was also not thrilled with a reported amount of guaranteed money of $19.5 million — less than two seasons playing under the franchise tag.

The Giants tried again to sign him long-term before placing the franchise tag on him during the 2023 offseason. They tried a third time after putting the tag on him and prior to the deadline for Barkley to be forced to play on the tag or hold out. They got close, but for want of a tad more flexibility on either side could not get a deal done.

In the 2024 offseason, Schoen chose to let Barkley test the market, and off to Philly he flew.

Verdict: Mixed. Again, I won’t call this an outright mistake. But, it’s hard to also make an absolute claim that Schoen was right. If you think Barkley should still be a Giant, I won’t tell you you’re wrong.

Philosophically, the decision by a building team that was not anywhere near ready to compete for championships not to sign a 27-year-old back with a long injury history to a rich, long-term contract was the right one. Barkley wasn’t going to make the 2024 Giants a title contender and the resources were needed elsewhere.

Schoen was correct that the Giants needed to put money into some proven offensive linemen. Sadly, that probably wouldn’t have been the case had Schoen had more success drafting offensive linemen. Under the circumstances, though, he was correct in that view.

As many have before him, Schoen banked on the idea that you can find good running backs without spending premium free agent dollars or using the most valuable of your draft capital.

Devin Singletary is a nice player. It is Tyrone Tracy, though, picked in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, who is making that part of the bet a correct one:

Tracy is not Barkley, but he is having an excellent rookie season, offering excellent production for a fifth-round pick.

• Tracy is second among rookie running backs with 619 rushing yards.
• Tracy’s three 100-yard rushing games are the most of any rookie.
• Tracy is averaging 5.0 yards per carry.
• Tracy has a team-high 797 scrimmage yards. That places him fourth among NFL rookies, behind Bucky Irving (1,017), Brock Bowers (895) and the Chargers’ Ladd McConkey (815). It also places him ahead of Malik Nabers.
• Tracy needs just 203 total yards over five games to become the third Giants’ rookie to surpass 1,000 yards from scrimmage. The others are:

— Barkley 2,028

— Odell Beckham 1,340

Barkley is having an otherworldly year, but Tracy is giving the Giants quality production. Keep in mind, Tracy has done all of that despite having just 12 rushing attempts and four receptions over the season’s first four weeks. Since taking over as the Giants’ primary running back, he is averaging 73.75 yards rushing per game. Over 17 games, that would be 1,254 rushing yards. Pretty impressive.

Remember, while Barkley is getting $26 million guaranteed from the Eagles Tracy is on a four-year, $4.3 million rookie deal with the pittance of $286,000 guaranteed.

I think Schoen miscalculated Barkley’s market, thinking he wouldn’t find what he wanted in free agency. I think Schoen miscalculated, or didn’t put enough value on, what Barkley meant to the franchise as a whole and the players in the locker room in particular. Without him, there is a massive leadership void.

S Xavier McKinney

McKinney bolted the Giants in free agency for a shocking four-year, $67.5 million contract ($23 million guaranteed) from the Green Bay Packers. Why shocking? Because at a time when teams were shedding high-priced safeties the Packers made McKinney the fourth-highest paid safety in the NFL.

Truth be told, in four seasons with the Giants McKinney never played like one of the best four safeties in football. There were plenty who thought he could — including McKinney himself — but he never did it.

McKinney has seven interceptions in 12 games, a career-high, after having just nine in 61 games over four seasons with the Giants. That is embarrassing since the Giants have just one all year, none from their secondary.

Schoen’s belief in positional value meant he was never going to pay a safety the way the Packers paid McKinney. Don’t forget that McKinney’s self-inflicted hand injury suffered during the 2022 bye week in Cabo undoubtedly cost him some trust and good will from the front office. McKinney’s public criticism of Wink Martindale also could not have played well in the front office.

Verdict: I believe this was the right move. It certainly doesn’t look like it right now with McKinney having the best year of his career and the Giants’ secondary not having made a real game-changing play all season.

Still, the Giants replaced McKinney with second-round pick Tyler Nubin. He is an ascending player who should emerge as the leader of that secondary for the next few seasons at a fraction of the cost.

Final thoughts

On their own individual merit, each of these decisions is logical and defendable. Yes, even the Barkley decision.

There are a couple of problems, though, and they speak to things I believe Schoen has to re-examine if he gets to continue as Giants general manager beyond the end of this season.

Sometimes, I think you have to look at the person and the overall impact beyond the narrow philosophical or analytical reasons for it. You have to be willing to make some exceptions to your basic belief system based on the person, and that is something I think Schoen needs to reconcile. You also have to consider the bigger picture, not just the philosophy/analytics of whatever decision is in front of you.

In a vacuum the reasons for each move are clear. The cumulative effect, though, of all of these decisions — including the cutting of Daniel Jones that this post does not delve into — has been a drain of veteran leadership. It has also cost the Giants several talented home-grown players, even though Schoen did not draft Barkley, Love, McKinney and even Engram.

John Mara has talked in the past about the need for a home-grown core of players, guys who are more than one-contract players and can help set a culture. These moves in total have left the Giants without enough of those types of players.

I also wonder, specifically with the Love and Barkley situations, if Schoen showed a troubling tendency to, for lack of finding a better way to phrase it, hold a grudge. It was clear from ‘Hard Knocks’ that part of the reason he didn’t negotiate with Barkley’s reps this offseason was that he was just tired of dealing with the situation. With Love, it also seems as if Schoen might have had an opportunity to bring him back but chose not to go back to the table with a player who had rejected him.

Making these things personal clouds the ability to do what is best for the franchise. Only Schoen knows for sure if he allowed personal feelings to creep into any of these situations. If he did, he needs to recognize that.