NY Giants trades will improve the next season (Opinion)

Pat Shurmur says the Giants are not tanking, and I believe him. Although it isn't easy when you see them drop to 1-7 after losing to the Washington Redskins, I truly believe when they take the field they will try to win. Can they win with what they have? Not so far. When I heard about the two trades the Giants made after their loss in Atlanta, my first thought was "fire sale". Time to blow it up and start over, but when you put the trades into perspective they may have actually done good.

Eli Apple wasn't exactly the "apple of their eye" when the Giants drafted him with the 10th pick in the 2016 draft. They had wanted to select tackle Jack Conklin, whom the Tennessee Titans traded up to the 8th spot to get, then they wanted linebacker Leonard Floyd, whom the Chicago Bears traded up to the ninth spot to select. Apple played well his first year, then imploded the next.

This year, Apple was given a "clean slate" by Head Coach Pat Shurmur and has played well. Keep in mind the Giants selected shutdown corner Sam Beal in the supplemental draft, so the replacement is already in place. So if you could get a fourth and seventh round draft pick for who could be the odd man out, why not take it?

As for Damon Harrison, "Snacks" is a great run stuffer but not so much a pass rusher. So far, the Giants possess the number 27th run defense. They also possess Dalvin Tomlinson, who's natural position is the nose tackle, which was once occupied by Harrison. He's also on a rookie contract as opposed to the 6.75 million in 2019 and 9 million in 2020 they would have to pay Harrison. It's very possible they would have released "Snacks" in the off season, so to trade him for a 5th round draft choice and save all that money which could be spent to rebuild the offensive line makes total sense.

With these two releases, the 30 players let go from last year, and the cutting of 2015 1st round draft choice Ereck Flowers, General Manger Dave Gettlemen is rebuilding the team in his own identity. I'm very interested to see where that goes.

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