The Giants have traded former first-round pick Kadarius Toney to the Kansas City Chiefs for third-round and sixth-round picks.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll confirmed the trade to reporters Thursday afternoon at the team’s practice facility in East Rutherford. The head coach made the announcement after he had informed the now-ex-Giants receiver.
“We just thought it was best for the team,” Daboll told reporters on Thursday, according to Newsday. “We wish Kadarius well. I’m not going to get into details or anything like that but this is the decision we made.”
The third-round pick that New York got in the trade is the one that the Chiefs got as compensation for Ryan Poles becoming the general manager of the Chicago Bears.
The move comes less than a week before the NFL trade deadline and could be a precursor to another move to help bolster an area of need like their wide receiver group. The deal ends a rather disappointing tenure for Toney in New York that saw him hindered by injuries since being drafted 20th overall in 2021.
Jordan Schultz of The Score was first to report the news before other outlets confirmed the reporting.
Toney has missed 12 of 24 games during his short NFL career and has 41 receptions for 420 yards and no touchdowns. He has been hampered by bad hamstrings in both his legs and has had just two catches this year and tweaked his hamstring during the Giants’ Week 2 win over the Carolina Panthers.
The latest issues with his hamstring started to flair up earlier this month from what he admitted last week may have been him returning too quickly. Toney did appear to indicate that he was still not healthy during a brisk exchange with reporters last week at Quest Diagnostics Center.
However, the wideout seemed to suggest on Thursday on Twitter after the trade that he wasn’t still hurt.
“That Joke Would’ve Been Funny If I Was Actually Hurt Still Lol…..Irrelevant people don’t get updates,” Toney Tweeted. A little over an hour later the tweet had been removed from his account.
Toney had remained confident that once he returned to the field that he would be able to perform at a level that everyone had been expecting.
“I mean when I step back out there I feel like I’m going to be who I originally was,” Toney said last week. “At the end of the day me doing this right now. Me getting my body right, that’s really not going to take from who I am, what I do. This and that. I don’t really know. In other words, I’m good.”
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In the end, the Giants didn’t seem to see things the same way and appeared ready to move on and try to clear some cap space. Toney had a $3 million cap hit for the Giants, according to Spotrac, and with the deadline approaching next Tuesday it could allow general manager Joe Schoen to bring in some help for potentially playoff-bound Giants.
The Giants have been rolling with Wan’Dale Robinson, Darius Slaton, Marcus Johnson and Richie James as their primary receivers and will continue to do so.
