Giants hope to trade James Bradberry before end of 2022 NFL Draft

The Giants’ position on James Bradberry has been the same since the day new GM Joe Schoen was hired. They don’t want to get rid of their top cornerback, but they know they have to.

And their hope, according to a source, is to have a deal in place before the end of the NFL draft.

That is definitely possible because the Giants are still actively shopping Bradberry, according to multiple NFL sources, and multiple teams have expressed an interest. The Kansas City Chiefs have been interested for a while, one source said. The Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans have also called about him, according to the New York Daily News.

Those teams would surely want to know if they can acquire Bradberry before the draft begins, or whether they should focus their cornerback search on the draft.

It remains unclear, though, if the Giants can get anywhere near their asking price. They had been hoping for a package that included a third-round pick in this year’s draft, a source said, but no one was willing to pay that when the Giants shopped him before the free agent market opened. They have since signaled to teams that they are willing to pick up some of Bradberry’s $13.4 million salary if teams are willing to offer the right package of picks in return.

If that sounds like the Giants are getting desperate, it’s because they are. After a series of cuts and some low-level free agent signings they are currently only about $2 million under the $208.2 million salary cap, according to NFL Players Association records. But they still need approximately $12.5 million in cap space to sign their draft class, plus several million more for their practice squad and in-season injury replacements.

Trading Bradberry, which would clear $12.1 million off their cap, is the easiest and probably the best way to get the space they need.

There are other options, but none of them are great. They could keep Bradberry and restructure some of their bigger contracts, like those of Leonard Williams, Kenny Golladay, and Adoree’ Jackson. But Schoen said restructuring deals was a "last resort" because of the future problems it can create, and a source said the Giants haven’t approached any of them about changing their deals.

Cutting Bradberry would’ve been a better option before the new league year opened on March 16 and $2 million of Bradberry’s salary became guaranteed. That means that if the Giants cut him now they’d not only get nothing in return, but their cap savings for 2022 would drop to $10.1 million.

Still, Giants co-owner John Mara, speaking on Sunday at the NFL owners meetings in West Palm Beach, Fla., would not rule that out.

"That would hurt because he’s been a very good player and he’s been the consummate professional for us," he said. "But the cap situation is what it is, so we’d have to consider all options there."

One alternative option the Giants are not considering is trading Saquon Barkley, which would trim $7.2 million off their books. Schoen had said the Giants were "open" to the possibility when he spoke at the NFL scouting combine a few weeks ago. And while Mara said he wouldn’t stand in the way if Schoen wanted to make a deal, he made it clear the Giants aren’t looking for one.

"We’re not shopping Saquon, but Joe’s the general manager and if he and the head coach want to make a personnel decision, and they have a conviction about it, I’m not going to interfere with it," Mara said. "That’s not something that we’re actively looking to do, let’s put it that way."