This is the Trade the New York Giants Should Consider Making

The New York Giants receivers group has gone from being a potential strength to a colossal mess thanks in part to injuries to Sterling Shepard (season-ending ACL), Kadarius Toney (hamstring), and Wan’Dale Robinson (knee), and to underperformances by guys like Kenny Golladay, who also is dealing with a knee issue.

Despite the issues at receiver, the Giants are still at 4-1, a surprise of the NFL. As promising as the offense has looked, imagine how it might look if it had a productive and healthy No. 1 receiver that could boost the league’s 31st-ranked passing offense.

Suppose the Carolina Panthers do plan to hold a fire sale of its talent in exchange for draft picks happen. In that case, the Giants should absolutely, positively make a call about acquiring D.J. Moore, whom CBS Sports identifies as an acquisition that would make sense for the Giants.

The 25-year-old receiver has recorded 1,000-yard seasons three years in a row. Moore, who has only missed two games in his career, also has some rushing ability, having carried the rock 24 times for 321 yards, a skill that would no doubt be a welcomed addition to the Giants' offense.

From a bigger picture perspective, the addition of Moore, expected to draw interest from other teams, not only removes a pressing need (No. 1 receiver) from the Giants’ to-do list this off-season, it also gives them a fairly healthy player at a far more reasonable rate.

While it would presumably cost the Giants premium draft picks to acquire Moore, if the Giants intend to move forward with Daniel Jones as their franchise quarterback, the cost might not be so hard to swallow despite the team having other holes to fill.

What about the salary cap? In the case of a trade, the acquiring team doesn’t have to worry about the player’s prorated signing bonus, which means the Giants, if they were to acquire Moore, would only be responsible this year for Moore’s $1.035 million base salary, which is a fully guaranteed amount.

Assuming the Giants don’t modify the rest of Moore’s contract, His cap numbers for 2023 and 2024 would be $20.165 million and $16 million in 2024—very reasonable numbers for a potential No. 1 receiver with whom this team could move forward. (Moore’s contract runs through 2025 when he has a $1 million roster bonus due on March 19, which a team can avoid paying if they cut Moore before that date.)

Speaking of the salary cap, the Giants have $3,612,753 left, according to Over the Cap, which isn't a lot to get through the rest of the 2022 season, especially if they get hit further by the injury bug.

The Giants have already maxed out their options for cap relief and are not willing to touchGolladay's contract, which they're believed to want to dump after this year.

But one other place they could look to for additional space, depending on how things go, is an extension for offensive lineman Nick Gates if he's successful in his comeback attempt from a serious broken leg injury suffered a little over a year ago.

Gates currently has a $2.05 million base salary that, if the Giants can lower, should be enough to take on Moore's current base salary while also ensuring they have Gates to compete for a starting job on next year's roster.

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