The New York Giants watched a busy, transformative NFL trade deadline day pass in silence on Tuesday. The Giants were neither able to acquire badly-needed wide receiver help nor dump unused assets like Russell Wilson, Evan Neal and Jalin Hyatt to acquire future draft capital.
Thus, rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart will go through the final eight games of the season with one wide receiver, Wan’Dale Robinson, who has been reliable this season. The Giants’ No. 2 receiving option is inconsistent second-year tight end Theo Johnson, who has a 9.3% drop rate over 21 NFL games.
The Giants, without a third-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft or a second-round pick in the 2027 draft, were also unable to add draft capital that could have been used to help round out the roster in future years.
Instead, Neal, who has been active just one time and has not played a snap this season, will likely continue to rot on the bench the remainder of the season and then leave in free agency. Hyatt will likely continue to be ignored while non-descript players like Ray-Ray McCloud, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Beaux Collins and Gunner Olszewski receive offensive snaps. Wilson will continue to languish on the bench and cost the Giants money for doing little to nothing the remainder of the season, provided Dart remains healthy.
All around the Giants, though, there were fireworks.
Jets blow it up
The New York Jets acted like a 1-7 team with a rookie coach and without a real quarterback, which is exactly what they are. They blew stuff up. They traded two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts for two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell. They swapped three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys for a first-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2026 and defensive tackle Mazi Smith.
The Jets now have five — yes, five — first-round picks over the next two years. That is how you kick-start a rebuild.
By the way, Daniel Jones has to be smiling today. He is about to get PAID. Again. Jones got a big contract from the Giants after one good year. Now that the Colts have traded away their next two first-round picks, that virtually guarantees they will be tying themselves to Jones, a potential free agent, for the next few seasons.
Remember when the world, including a certain writer at Big Blue View, was laughing at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after he traded Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers? Well, nobody should be laughing now. The Cowboys beefed up their defense by adding Williams, who is not Parsons but is a really good player, and getting a good linebacker in Logan Wilson from the Cincinnati Bengals for a measly seventh-round pick.
Wide receivers did move
The Giants weren’t able to land wide receiver help, but two of the players they had been connected to did land with new teams.
The Las Vegas Raiders sent Jakobi Meyers to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are without Travis Hunter, for fourth- and sixth-round picks in 2026. The New Orleans Saints sent Rashid Shaheed to the Seattle Seahawks for fourth- and fifth-round picks.
The price tag for Jaylen Waddle of the Miami Dolphins, reportedly a first-round pick, was prohibitive.
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