The New York Giants have several players remaining from their last few years under Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen, who may not exactly fit the plan John Harbaugh is trying to implement in New York.
Cornerback Deonte Banks may be one of those players.
The 24th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft has had a rough tenure with the Giants, to say the least.
After a somewhat promising rookie season, Banks has regressed every year in New York, and it feels like he could benefit from a fresh change of scenery.
The Giants could look to trade the 25-year-old before the start of training camp, but it may prove to be more difficult than it should be for a player who was recently a first-round draft pick.
Giants Told to Move on From Deonte Banks
Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton compiled a list of one player each NFL team should look to trade this summer, and for the New York Giants, he named Banks.
“Given Deonte Banks‘ lapses in coverage, he doesn’t have much trade value, unless the New York Giants package him with draft capital. However, it only takes one team to give a recent first-rounder a chance to reinvent himself with a change of scenery,” wrote Moton.
“Obviously, the Giants wanted more than a special-teamer out of a top-25 draft pick, but Banks has clearly lost his way as a starter after the team demoted him last offseason… They’ve put the writing on the wall for Banks’ departure. Perhaps a team bails them out of his deal with an offer to swap a late-round pick for him.”
So far this offseason, the Giants have had Banks competing for the team’s primary return specialist, obviously not what you would like your first-round cornerback doing entering his fourth season.
According to Pro Football Focus, the former Maryland standout was the third-worst cornerback in the NFL last season, receiving a 42.4 PFF grade.
It was a no-brainer for the front office to decline his fifth-year option. They would’ve been on the hook for $12.63 million in 2027, not the best price for your backup cornerback.
Instead of having to rely on him for another season, the Giants practically overhauled their secondary this offseason, bringing in two new corners to man their back end.
Giants’ Current Cornerback Room
If the New York Giants were to trade Banks, they would lose some depth, but their starting lineup would not change.
Big Blue’s most likely starters will be veteran Greg Newsome and rookie Colton Hood, two players with varying degrees of excitement.
Newsome has had an up-and-down career in the NFL so far, starting his career strong with the Cleveland Browns before getting traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars this past season.
Hood was New York’s 37th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and comes with a fairly high pedigree from the University of Tennessee.
According to PFF, the 21-year-old was college football’s 88th-best cornerback out of 896 qualified players in 2025.
He’ll have to hope to be better than that if he wants to be a consistent starter for the Giants next season.
Regardless, if the Giants can find a way to trade Banks, it wouldn’t be detrimental to their starting lineup.
But it would certainly thin their depth out a bit more.
Giants Urged to Trade Recent First-Round Bust Before Training Camp