Giants likely to prioritize ILB in free agency
The NFL’s legal tampering window opens on Monday at 12:00 p.m. ET with the new league year beginning on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
That means things are about to heat up for the New York Giants and general manager Joe Schoen, who will have much more money to work with this year.
But the Giants also have several roster holes they need to fill ahead of the 2023 NFL draft and while many expect them to focus on wide receiver, that may not be the case. Rather, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan believes they will prioritize inside linebacker — a position we at Giants Wire have harped on for the past two months.
“The position I heard most (about) the Giants shopping near the top was inside linebacker, middle linebacker,” Raanon said on Breaking Big Blue.
Although Schoen and the Giants are likely to prioritize inside linebacker and have more money to work with, Raanan doesn’t expect them to go after someone like Bobby Wagner. Rather, they will aim for younger, slightly less expensive players who will be around for years to come.
“(Tremaine Edmunds) is going to be a little too rich for their blood. He’s going to get close to $15 million per year,” Raanan said. “The other name that I’ve heard most prominently was T.J. Edwards from the Eagles. 26 years old. If that price doesn’t get crazy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Giants very heavily in on Edwards.
“A younger player they can build around. But him in the middle of that defense for the next three, four years.”
Edwards wasn’t the only inside linebacker Raanan heard the Giants were potentially interested in.
“Some other names I heard that I think they’ll keep an eye on is Germaine Pratt from the Bengals, a really good player,” Raanan said. “Cole Holcomb from Washington is another name in that range. Leighton Vander Esch. Drue Tranquill if they have to go down a little bit on level if the price of the other guys gets too high.”
Raanan believes the Giants will focus on the $6 million to $8 million range for inside linebackers but may go up to $10 million if the market value doesn’t explode and they have a shot at landing a higher-tier player.
