Giants’ Joe Schoen gets two draft picks for Kadarius Toney and his zero receiving yards

Conventional wisdom suggested that the Giants could not get anything for Kadarius Toney at the trade deadline.

Joe Schoen tried anyway and succeeded Thursday by dealing the star-crossed wide receiver to the Kansas City Chiefs for two draft picks — a compensatory third-rounder and a sixth-rounder.

That would not have seemed like much in April 2021 when former general manager Dave Gettleman made Toney the 20th overall pick in the draft, but not much that transpired since that day proved to be encouraging for either the team or the 23-year-old receiver.

Toney caught 39 passes for 420 yards as a rookie last season, but 189 of those yards and 10 of those catches came in one half during an October game last season in Dallas before the receiver exited with an ankle injury. Take away that half and Toney had 31 catches for 231 yards in his other 11 games with the Giants.

Injuries to his quad and abdomen kept Toney out of six other games last season.

As bad as his rookie season went, things were even worse for the former Florida star this season. He needed minor knee surgery in May, then suffered a hamstring injury during training camp.

Toney was in uniform for opening day against Tennessee, but only played seven snaps in the Giants’ upset win over the Titans. He was not targeted as a receiver in the opener, but he did run the football twice for 23 yards.

As it turned out, that would be his final game as a Giant with positive yards.

In Week 2, he played 28 snaps against the Carolina Panthers and caught two passes for a total of zero yards.

His hamstring issues resurfaced the following week in practice and he missed the Week 3 game against Dallas and the Week 4 game against Chicago. The Giants thought he was close to returning before their trip to London to play the Packers, but Toney’s other hamstring started bothering him and he did not get on the charter flight overseas with the team.

He was out again against Baltimore and Jacksonville and remained out of practice Wednesday.

Given the fact that the Giants are now being run by a different regime than the one that drafted him, it was hardly surprising that Schoen wanted to trade Toney rather than let a bad situation linger. That the Giants’ first-year GM was able to do so and get not one but two draft picks for Toney was another sign that the new sheriff in town knows how to run a football team.

It’s not as if the Giants are going to miss Toney. It’s almost impossible to miss something that they had so seldom on the field. It’s no secret that the team’s weakest link

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Bob Brookover can be reached at rbrookover@njadvancemedia.com

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