Kadarius Toney was never long for the Giants once Joe Schoen took over.
The Giants’ new GM is thorough. He did his homework on what happened before he and Brian Daboll got here.
Then Toney skipped the start of Daboll’s spring offseason workouts and reinforced internal concerns. He also had an arthroscopic knee procedure that sidelined him until training camp.
The Giants made calls looking to trade Toney away in the spring, as the Daily News exclusively reported in April. But, predictably, they couldn’t fetch a sufficient price at that time.
Other front offices knew something was up when such a talented 2021 first-round pick was on the market in just his second year.
Despite Daboll’s and Schoen’s concerted efforts to publicly demonstrate that the organization was embracing Toney, the oft-injured wideout never earned their trust.
He mostly stayed injured and out of the lineup, tweaking both hamstrings in camp and the regular season. His practice habits never gave off the impression of a player who believed he had to prove himself.
That’s why he only played seven snaps in the season opener in Tennessee. That’s why they traded him Thursday to the Kansas City Chiefs for a compensatory third-round pick and a sixth-rounder — Schoen’s first trade (not including draft day shuffling) as Giants GM.
Fascinatingly, Toney tweeted after Thursday’s trade that he is not hurt, even though he missed the Giants’ last five games with hamstring injuries, including their trip to London.
“That Joke Would’ve Been Funny if I was Actually Hurt Still Lol,” Toney wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “Irrelevant people don’t get updates.”
That would be a violation if the Giants were listing Toney as injured while healthy. A Giants spokesperson said the team had no response to Toney’s claim. An NFL spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether the league investigates such matters.
Sources did tell the Daily News that Schoen and Daboll addressed the players on the field before Thursday’s practice, though, minutes after the news of the trade broke.
Schoen and Daboll told the players they are “going to do what’s best for the team,” one source said.
Giants players seemed to appreciate and understand that transparency, even though trading away a talented player hypothetically could send the wrong short-term message to a 6-1 team.
The Philadelphia Eagles (6-0), after all, are doing the opposite: they just traded a fourth-round pick away on Wednesday for Chicago Bears pass rusher Robert Quinn.
“I don’t know if it sends a message,” captain Julian Love said. “They are trying to build for the future. They’re trying to build the team. At the end of the day, no matter how we feel about [Toney], they have a plan for this team and we’ve just got to trust it.”
Left tackle Andrew Thomas said he hopes for the best for Toney, who is a “talented kid.” But so far, Schoen and Daboll have steered the Giants in the right direction, so there’s no reason to be skeptical.
“I think most of the guys trust in what they’ve done so far,” Thomas said of players’ belief in the GM and head coach. “We’re winning games. Now we’re focused on Seattle.”
Love also said he thought it was “the smart play” for Schoen and Daboll to speak to the players before practice simply so they wouldn’t be distracted, since the news had just broken.
“I think [with] the timing of it all, they had to address us so we could have a normal, good practice,” Love said. “We all found out and it broke right before practice while we were getting ready. So it was a situation where I think they kind of wanted to get ahead of it.”
The abrupt timing of Toney’s trade leaking before practice seemed to account for Daboll’s curt answers on the subject as he headed toward the field. The head coach said he had just spoken to Toney minutes earlier, prior to stepping out on the patio and facing the media.
“I understand all these questions right now. I got it completely,” Daboll said. “It just happened a few seconds ago. I’ll just say Joe and I talk about a lot of things, and that was a decision we made. Our decision is for the team and we’re moving on. Wish Kadarius well.”
The trade should be good for Toney, sending him to a potent offense in a less visible market.
The question for the Giants now is whether Toney’s trade makes them more or less likely to add a wide receiver before next Tuesday’s 4 p.m. NFL trade deadline. They traded one of their most talented players at arguably their position of greatest need.
It frees up only $755,000 of salary cap space for this season, which increases the Giants’ available cap room to around $3.56 million. And it saves Schoen $1.9 million in 2023 and $2.5 million in 2024, respectively, that he can spend elsewhere.
Kenny Golladay, an expensive receiver already on the roster, admitted this kind of trade could have players like him wondering if they are next.
“I’ve been in this league long enough,” he said. “Anything is possible.”
But Golladay, who is rehabbing a knee injury, said he wants to remain a Giant, get healthy and contribute to this special season after the Week 9 bye.
“Oh man, I want to be a part of it big time,” Golladay said with a smile. “I’m trying everything to get back out there. I’ve never even been a part of a game that’s gone 6-1. As long as I can stay on the field and put the little injuries behind me, I definitely can do big things for this team.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Chase Claypool and the Denver Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy are two intriguing talents on rookie contracts who might be available this week. Daboll coached Jeudy as a freshman at Alabama in 2017.
Free agent Odell Beckham Jr. is out there for some contender to sign in late November or December.
League sources said this week that Schoen remains open to anything sensible on either side: selling or buying. But trading Toney affirms that the Giants are not just thinking about this year. They know who they are. So Schoen might not be done.
They are committing to a rebuild, and getting these assets for Toney — including the Chiefs’ compensatory pick for Ryan Poles’ GM hiring in Chicago — is a win for the first-year Giants GM.