New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen said he is open to “all possible scenarios” when it comes to the No. 6 overall pick the team currently holds ahead of Thursday’s first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Giants’ game plan will likely be predicated upon what happens with the five selections ahead of them.
Chicago is widely expected to take Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick, and LSU’s Jayden Daniels is favored to go to Washington at No. 2. What happens after that remains highly uncertain.
Could the Giants move up to select a quarterback such as North Carolina’s Drake Maye? Or will they sit tight and see which elite prospects fall into their lap after the expected run on quarterbacks? Schoen also didn’t dismiss the possibility of trading back to accumulate additional picks.
“You’re going through all the possible scenarios, whether it’s moving up, staying where we are or moving back,” Schoen said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of strategy that’s going into it right now.”
Schoen said he has been staying in touch with general managers around the league and will continue to do so leading up to the start of Thursday’s first round. The pre-draft work helps with making decisions once the clock starts running.
“I told all those people, ‘Nothing’s really going to happen before Thursday, so call back,'” Schoen said. “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.”
The Giants own one selection in each of the first six rounds, but are without a seventh-round pick after acquiring linebacker Isaiah Simmons from Arizona last year. Schoen has made trades in each of his first two drafts with the Giants, including moving up to grab cornerback Deonte Banks at No. 24 last year.
However, don’t expect the Giants to slide back significantly on Thursday. Schoen said the team currently has 15 players with first-round grades on their draft board.
“Every year it’s different based on what you’re given,” he said. “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.
“I think each year the ebbs and flows of where the depth of the draft is and where you can acquire players, it shifts based on different variables.”
The pre-draft work will continue through Wednesday night and up until the clock begins on the No. 1 pick Thursday night. Part of Schoen’s job is sifting through all the “smoke” of various rumors around the league while also keeping his cards close to his vest.
“I’m going to make a lot of phone calls on Thursday,” he said. “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.
“Just try to gather as much information as I can … talk to the other general managers around the league. If anybody wants to come up to six, get those agreements in place. Things will happen fast once you’re on the clock, so you’ve got to be ready.”
