The Giants are trading CB Eli Apple to the Saints, SNY's Ralph Vacchiano confirmed.
Apple posted to his Instagram on Tuesday night to address the situation, captioning his post "Business is business."
In exchange for Apple, the Giants received a fourth-round draft pick in 2019 and seventh-rounder in 2020. With the deal, the Giants clear slightly more than $1 million in cap space this year and around $2.5 million next year.
"We felt like it was good value," head coach Pat Shurmur said during his Tuesday conference call. "Eli's played well for us this year. He's going to be a Saint now and we wish him well."
The 23-year-old Apple had been welcomed back by the Giants this season after a tumultuous 2017 season filled with off-field issues and on-field struggles.
After being selected by the Giants with the 10th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, Apple showed promise in his rookie year with playoff-bound Big Blue. But the corner followed it up by heavily contributing to the downward spiral that came to define the 2017 Giants.
Last November, when teammates and coaches called out his lack of effort on the field, Apple threatened to walk out of the team facility not once, but twice. Ben McAdoo then kept him inactive for four straight games. And after returning for two games, Apple was suspended for the final game of the season following a confrontation with coaches at practice.
The mess only got worse when S Landon Collins called Apple a "cancer" during a radio interview in late December.
Despite the disaster, the Giants gave Apple a clean slate under a new regime with head coach Pat Shurmur. This past summer, Apple said he was "embarrassed" for his behavior, and also managed to clear things up with Collins.
While no longer a Giants headache this season, Apple has been limited on the field in 2018. He missed Weeks 3 and 4 due to a groin injury and left Monday night's loss to the Falcons with an ankle injury. He has 23 tackles with once forced fumble this year.