Grading the trade: Giants prove that something is better than nothing after moving a depth piece who was on roster bubble
The New York Giants are making moves ahead of the preseason finale and final roster cutdown day, only they aren’t adding players; they are subtracting and receiving draft capital instead.
The New York Giants have traded edge rusher Josh Ezeudu to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for a 2028 seventh-round pick, per Jordan Schultz. The move comes as NFL teams approach their preseason finales and the looming roster cutdown deadline, a period when trades and roster transactions pick up across the league.
The return for New York amounts to very little on paper. A seventh-round pick two drafts out is about as close to nothing as you can get in the NFL. But the truth is, this is probably the best the Giants were going to do for a player who was a backup at best, if not on the outside looking in when it came to making the 53-man roster.
What this trade means for the Giants, Evan Neal
Ezeudu was a depth piece in New York, slated to be a second or, more realistically, third-string option. That 2028 seventh-rounder isn’t going to move the needle on its own, but it gives New York a small asset to package in a future deal, similar to what New York did last week with Daniel Faalele. The Giants could use it to move up in the 2028 NFL Draft, or even package it with other picks to gain leverage in the 2027 NFL Draft. It’s not much, but it beats watching a player walk out the door for nothing.
Between the two trades of the Giants linemen, this also provides clarity for the future of Evan Neal, who, despite being in trade rumors, is probably safe following the subtraction of two different contemporaries and no other additions.
Josh Ezeudu Facts
- Played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels.
- Was a third-round pick by the Giants in 2022.
- Appeared in 33 games and made 10 starts from 2022-2024.
Sending Ezeudu to a different conference helps, too
One detail worth noting: Kansas City plays in the AFC, so the Giants aren’t strengthening a conference rival. For a depth player who wasn’t going to crack the rotation in New York barring injury, sending him to the Chiefs carries little to no competitive risk for the Giants.
Trade grade: C
This trade sits right down the middle. It’s not a win-win so much as a nothing-nothing, with a slight edge toward smart roster management by New York. The Giants turned a player that wasn’t going to get a lot of burn if even made the team into a late-round pick a year and a half from now. That’s about as average as a transaction gets, and average is perfectly fine when the alternative is getting nothing at all.
