There’s more information on why the New York Giants traded wide receiver Kadarius Toney to the Kansas City Chiefs before Week 8. 

“The Giants…actually preferred Toney sit out (Sunday’s game at the Seattle Seahawks) and rest up during the following bye week to be healthy for the second half of the season,” Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reported about the often-injured 23-year-old who has thus far only played in two games during the ongoing campaign and has recently missed time due to multiple hamstring issues. 

“The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday and the Giants were not committed to keeping him around. If he played and re-injured himself, his trade value would be diminished. If he played and was productive, his marketability in a trade would increase. Given his history with the Giants ever since becoming a 2021 first-round pick, the feeling was it was more likely Toney would hurt his trade value.” 

Interestingly, it appears first-year head coach Brian Daboll and first-year general manager Joe Schoen thought Toney may not follow orders after this weekend and, thus, landed a compensatory third-round pick and a sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft from Kansas City for the receiver’s services. 

“It is believed Daboll’s plan is for the injured players to stay in town during the bye week and continue their rehab at the team facility,” Schwartz continued. “If Toney was held out of Sunday’s game he would have been considered an injured player and required to stay — which he would not want to do. There were concerns that Toney, if deemed healthy, would leave the area and compromise some of his conditioning during the bye week, making him more susceptible to injury upon his return. Clearly, Toney did not build up any trust equity with the new coaching staff or front office.”

Max Weisman of the New York Post noted how Toney seemed to suggest on Twitter shortly after news of Thursday’s trade broke that he could’ve played for New York against Seattle. 

“That Joke Would’ve Been Funny If I Was Actually Hurt Still Lol…Irrelevant people don’t get updates,” Toney wrote in a since-deleted tweet.