Giants GM Joe Schoen Sends Blunt Message on NYG Draft ‘Smoke’

The New York Giants’ draft plans have been speculated on and rumored about for months, but general manager Joe Schoen cleared one thing up for fans during an interview with Giants.com ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Nobody knows anything.

“There’s going to be a lot of smoke this week: ‘This is the Giants’ guy and this is who they’re taking,’” Schoen told team reporter Michael Eisen within an article that was published on April 24. “And nobody knows because there’s one person that does and I’m keeping things pretty close to the vest in terms of what we’re going to do.”

“The more people that know what’s going on, you maybe put them in a predicament you don’t want to put them in where they know the information, it gets out and then you’re looking at them sideways,” the Big Blue GM explained. “So, try to keep as much information in house and that’ll continue through Thursday in terms of when I get a feel for what’s going to happen around us.”

Schoen’s a nice guy and he’ll never take a shot at anyone that’s just doing their job, but that might as well have been a message to every insider and draft expert that has claimed to know what the Giants are thinking over the past three to four months. The translation: You don’t.

That’s not to say the Giants won’t select someone that has been previously predicted. A wide receiver like Malik Nabers or a quarterback like Drake Maye still makes a ton of sense — should the opportunity arise.

Schoen’s simply saying these public opinions aren’t backed with sources from inside his circle, and that’s noteworthy.

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Joe Schoen Says Giants Only Have 15 First-Round Grades in 2024 NFL Draft

The Giants general manager may be keeping his intentions close to the vest, but he did give up one piece of information during his sit-down with Eisen.

“We’ve got 15 players in the first round,” Schoen said, regarding how many first-round grades he has in 2024. “Last year, we had 11.”

“Every year it’s different based on what you’re given,” the GM went on. “You don’t put them there just for posterity or just a visual for window dressing. These are guys that we think deserve first-round grades. If they’re not up there, you put them in the second. You put them where their grade is. We don’t put 32 guys up there to have 32 guys in the first round.”

That doesn’t tell you what the Giants will end up doing at six, but it does hint that Schoen is unlikely to trade down past the No. 15 spot in the order. A drop of that magnitude is obviously a longshot to begin with — which is probably why Schoen offered up this information — but it doesn’t mean NYG won’t trade down in general.

If there are 15 prospects that Big Blue loves enough to give a first-round grade, that might even encourage a trade down to a 10-13 range. Of course, it all depends who’s on the board at No. 6.

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Giants Will Likely Be Involved in Trade Discussions During NFL Draft

Schoen did also acknowledge that the Giants will be involved in trade discussions starting on Thursday, but he didn’t tip his hand on whether or not NYG will move up or down in 2024.

“[Trade discussions] will pick up as we get closer to Thursday, I think,” Schoen voiced with Eisen.

“I told all those people, ‘Nothing’s really going to happen before Thursday, so call back,’” he noted. “We’ll have conversations early in the day on, ‘Hey, if we did do something, what would it look like?’ And typically, you have a few deals in place before the draft starts. That way, when you’re on the clock, everything’s been negotiated.”

Later, Schoen added that “I’m going to make a lot of phone calls on Thursday.”

“Hopefully, some information will start to trickle out in terms of what’s going to happen in front of us so we can continue to headcount who may be there at six, or what we may be doing, if we’re going to move up, back, or stay where we are,” he stated. “So, just try to gather as much information as I can.”

The NFL draft kicks off on the evening of April 25, meaning the Giants will finally be on the clock in a little over 24 hours.

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