Giants Trade Deadline: Which Veterans Make Sense to Deal?

With the NFL trade deadline fast approaching, all indications point to the New York Giants being buyers rather than sellers.

But if there’s anything we’ve learned about this John Harbaugh-led team, it’s to expect the unexpected. That means that, in addition to potentially making a splash to land a player like Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, the Giants might be open to trading a player or two at positions of relative depth.

“I’ll put it out there,” Harbaugh said Monday when asked about the looming trade deadline. “We’re open for any call. Anybody who wants to call us, call.”

So which Giants players could draw interest from other teams? Here are three that come to mind.

Center John Michael Schmitz

Schmitz, in the final year of his contract, lost his starting job to Bryan Hudson in Week 4 and is now the backup.

Remember, the Giants added a couple of interior offensive linemen to their practice squad with some center experience, including rookie Geno VanDeMark and veteran Kendrick Green.

Schmitz, as we proposed last week, might interest the Green Bay Packers, a team in the uber-competitive NFC North. The Packers, who have gone through centers like crazy due to injury, hold a 5-3 record but sit in last place.

That said, if the season ended today, the entire NFC North would qualify for the postseason, with the Packers looking at the seventh seed. So an investment in a starting-caliber center to fill in while their starter, Sean Rhyan, recovers from a high ankle sprain wouldn’t necessarily be a bad move.

Defensive Lineman Darius Alexander

New York Giants defensive tackle Darius Alexander | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This might sound contradictory given how we have pounded the table for the Giants to add defensive line depth. Still, we were talking about defensive line depth that can be productive against the run, which, unfortunately, Alexander, the Giants’ third-round pick in 2025, has struggled to provide.

After coming on strong at the tail end of his rookie season, Alexander was perfectly positioned to earn a starting role on the defense. Instead, he has slowly fallen out of favor, largely because of his struggles in run defense.

Currently, Alexander ranks 49th in run defense grades among defensive linemen with at least 50 run-defense snaps. He also has a 3.6% run stop rate, which ties him for 111th in the same 133-player sample.

Things were so shaky for him that he was even a healthy scratch in the Giants’ Week 2 game against the Los Angeles Rams.

What Alexander can give a team is something in the pass rush. He has six pressures on the year, which puts him tied for 79th out of 88 defensive linemen with at least 100 pass-rush snaps.

It’s not much, but the Jacksonville Jaguars, whom the Giants face in Week 11, recently lost defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton to a season-ending quad injury, so they may be interested in doing business with the Giants again.

Safety Tyler Nubin

A potential trade of Nubin will probably be tricky, given that he’s been dealing with a neck injury that limited him to just one defensive snap in Week 7.

But Nubin, who earned a starting job as a rookie after being selected in the second round of the 2024 draft, hasn’t quite developed into the playmaker the Giants hoped he’d become.

In two and a half seasons of action, Nubin has 27 missed tackles (12.5% rate) and only 46 stops, both attributable to poor angles and positioning. He has a 106.8 career coverage rating and, even more strikingly, zero interceptions despite being a ballhawk at the University of Minnesota.

If the Giants subtract Nubin from the lineup, Ar’Darius Washington and Jason Pinnock can step in, with Raheem Layne on the practice squad. Washington and Pinnock are better in run support and can hold their own in coverage.

As for who could use safety help, Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s old boss, Brandon Beane in Buffalo, comes to mind. The Bills don’t have much salary cap space, just $3.927 million, so inheriting a player still on his rookie deal who would cost $87,549 per week on the roster could be an attractive option if, again, Nubin’s neck issue has resolved itself.

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