joe judge giants
Syndication: The Record

Giants head coach Joe Judge spoke to the media following Tuesday’s trade deadline.

The trade deadline has come and gone.

The Giants could’ve made a number of moves — the correct decision would’ve been to wave the white flag on what’s already looking to be a lost cause of a season and deal various players for picks. Prior to that 4:00 p.m. ET finish line on Tuesday, New York could’ve sent away tight end Evan Engram, wide receiver Darius Slayton, and/or running back Saquon Barkley for future draft capital.

But that’s not what the organization did — the Giants opted to remain quiet at the deadline and stick with a number of the players currently on the roster.

Head coach Joe Judge believes this “hush-hush” approach was beneficial for the organization’s status down the road…

“I think the decisions we made we thought were best for the team long-term with where we’re at,” Judge told the media Tuesday afternoon. “Look, this trade deadline day, you get a lot of calls going around. But really…today’s the last day. You’ve had the opportunities leading all the way up through here to make any kind of roster moves or trades…you get a lot of calls bouncing around from other teams, kind of inquiring about either something that they may want or something you may be willing to move, things of that nature.

“For us, we felt the decisions we made were best for the team going forward, so we’re good with just moving on with business as usual.”

If you’re a 2-6 team that can’t stay consistent and has a tough upcoming schedule, not becoming all-out sellers at the deadline isn’t the best decision from a long-term approach. It’s actually the opposite.

If the Giants wanted to keep a long-term approach in mind, they seemingly would’ve made more of an effort to move any of the aforementioned three players, or possibly someone such as edge rushers Oshane Ximines or Lorenzo Carter.

The Giants needed to surrender this 2021 season. It’s a depressing revelation on Nov. 2, but it had to be done. They needed to enhance their collection of draft capital in order to prepare for 2022 and beyond, especially considering their cap sapce issues (Spotrac already has them at $13.17 million under the cap for 2022).

Moving a player like Engram or maybe even Carter (although the former would’ve made more sense) would’ve been totally reasonable given either has an expiring rookie contract. Gaining a 2022 draft pick in return for either one would’ve been beneficial for the team, especially from that ever-important long-term perspective.

“Every decision we make is what’s best for the team long-term going forward,” Judge reiterated later on. “There’s a number of players we had that are free agents this year — there’s nothing that’s ruling out us being able to bring those players back to continue being a part of our team. We want to build with guys that are here, we want to continue growing with the guys that are here, that are established in our program as being team guys, guys that we believe have the skillset and the makeup to help us be successful in this program as we continue to build.

“The decisions we make are always best for the team. Are there calls and interest and different things that come up? Absolutely. But as you go through those conversations, you’ve got to consider everything involved.”

Big Blue thus moves forward with a tight end who it shouldn’t even bring back after this season along with a third-year receiver in Slayton who’s way down the depth chart when everyone else is healthy. Not to mention, the Giants will also progress with an injury-prone former No. 2 overall draft pick who plays a running back position that’s diminishing in value.

Nine games to go.

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Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.