A big win for Schoen
THE fact that the Giants got anything for Kadarius Toney in a trade on Thursday can only be described as excellent work by the person who executed the transaction. Joe Schoen, who was already having a pretty damned good rookie season as Giants general manager, just took a few more steps closer to the podium to accept the NFL Executive of the Year award at the end of this season. Schoen, acquiring third- and sixth-round draft picks from the Chiefs for Toney, got something for a player who had given the Giants nothing but headaches since the moment he was drafted, with a never-ending chain of injuries and concerns from within the building that he was more concerned with dropping new rap songs as Yung Joka than catching passes. Toney, drafted 20th overall in 2021, missed as many games (12) as he played (12) for the Giants in his 24game career. He simply couldn’t stay on the field. His name appeared on the Giants’ injury report in 19 of the 24 weeks of his regular-season tenure — and that doesn’t include the time missed during offseason programs and training camp. He had missed the Giants’ past five games as a result of two separate hamstring injuries. Toney’s career with the Giants (for however long it may be remembered) will be defined as a tease, with Giants fans seeing fleeting glimpses of how electric he could be with the football in his hands. In the end, though, those glimpses were far too infrequent. The mini-stretch that best exemplifies Toney’s time with the Giants took place last season when, in Week 4, he caught six passes for 78 yards in a win at New Orleans and followed that with 10 receptions for 189 yards (both career highs) in a loss at Dallas the following week. It was perfectly fitting not only that Toney’s best performance as a Giant took place in a 44-20 loss, but also that he was ejected from the game for throwing a punch at Cowboys safety Damontae Kazee. After that Dallas game, Toney played in just five of the final 12 games of the 2021 season, catching 19 more passes for a quiet 139 yards. The most glaring stat from Toney’s short time with the Giants is the fact that he didn’t score a single touchdown. The final tally on Toney’s statistics as a
Giant, as he takes his talent and injury baggage to Kansas City, where Andy Reid must believe he can turn him into a weapon: 12 games played, five starts, 41 receptions for 420 yards and no TDs. He played in two games this season and had two catches for zero yards.
So, Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll getting anything north of a bag of practicerange golf balls for a player who not only hadn’t produced, but likely was never going to fit into the program, is a resounding victory.
Getting a third-round and a sixth-round pick for him borders on grand larceny. Had Schoen been wearing a black ski mask while sitting at his desk and working the phones with the Chiefs, you’d understand why.
All you need to know about how far Toney’s value to the team had fallen in the eyes of Schoen and Daboll is the fact that receiver is the Giants’ thinnest position, their position of most need, and yet they still couldn’t get rid of Toney quickly enough.
The fact that every executive in the league was aware of how done the Giants were with Toney and still they were able to get the return they did for him makes the transaction even more impressive.
“We just thought it was for the best of the team,” Daboll, who’ll never say a bad word about a player publicly, said Thursday.
The added beauty of this deal for the Giants is the fact that Toney was not a player Schoen and Daboll drafted. Toney was drafted by Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge and became Schoen and Daboll’s problem once those guys were let go after the 2021 season.
So, this regime trading him away was not an admission to an error it had made. It was merely a continuation of the “Cleanup on Aisle 5” of the mess Gettleman left that Schoen has been in the midst of since he took over a team with a suffocating salary cap problem and a suspect roster.
The trade, too, rids the team of the $5.2 million in guaranteed salary Toney still has left on his contract. That’s the Chiefs’ problem now.
If Reid, who possesses one of the most fertile offensive minds in the game, is eventually able to make something of Toney, keep him on the field and turn him into the dynamic playmaker he has the potential to be, more power to him.
It’ll be on Schoen to turn those two 2023 draft picks the Giants got from the Chiefs into productive players who bring something positive to the team.
That’ll simply cement what already looks like a highly successful day off the field.