The New York Giants surprised everyone with their performance during the 2022 season. It was the first under the new regime of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll and they blew all expectations out of the water.
The Giants went 9-7-1 in the regular season, earning a Wild Card spot. They defeated the Minnesota Vikings during Super Wild Card Weekend before getting lambasted by the Philadelphia Eagles the next week.
That game showed just how large the gap is between the Giants and the Eagles as there is plenty of work left to do. Schoen did a good job of filling some of the gaps this offseason, as he upgrade the weapons around Daniel Jones on offense. Tight end Darren Waller, who was acquired from the Las Vegas Raiders, has been dominating in camp and the team has big plans for free agent signing Parris Campbell.
Defensively, the Giants are hoping their run defense woes will be aided by the addition of Bobby Okereke. But, it will take more than one player to help get New York’s defense truly back on track.
Okereke is certainly a good addition, but more upgrades could be used in the front seven. Specifically, adding pass rushers. The Giants have two good young players in Azeez Ojuliar and Keyvon Thibodeaux, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to add more juice to the pass rush.
That is why Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report has suggested two different trades for the Giants to make that result in adding pass rushers. The first was from the Houston Texans’ perspective, sending Jerry Hughes to New York.
Hughes doesn’t fit the timeline that the Texans are on and would likely welcome a trade to a team in a better position to compete. He would provide the Giants with a strong three-headed monster off the edge and be a mentor for the young pass-rushing duo in place.
The other suggested trade would be for Big Blue to acquire Danielle Hunter from the Vikings. Acquiring Hunter presents some issues as the Giants have only $3 million in cap space. The Vikings have also seemingly smoothed things over with a new contract for Hunter after he skipped minicamp.
But, that was only a temporary fix. If the Giants offered a third-round pick, as Ballentine suggested, the Vikings may be open to making a deal still. Still only 28 years old, Hunter could be a long-term addition, not a one-year rental, to the defensive front in New York
