The Giants didn’t make the Davon Godchaux trade, but they still ended up in the middle of it.
That’s the strange part of Monday’s deal between Jacksonville and New Orleans, a move that sent the veteran defensive lineman to the Jaguars while dragging New York into the fine print. The Saints are getting a conditional 2028 sixth-round pick that could turn into a 2027 sixth-rounder, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The catch: Jacksonville doesn’t currently own a 2027 sixth-round pick. If the Jaguars acquire one, it goes to New Orleans.
And the reason that matters to the Giants is simple. Jacksonville already sent that pick to New York before the season in the trade for offensive lineman Daniel Faalele.
So yes, the Giants are involved, just not in any way that shows up on the transaction wire in the usual sense.
The whole setup is a little wild. Jacksonville GM James Gladstone worked out a deal that basically leaves the Saints holding a pick the Jaguars don’t have yet, with the possibility that it gets filled in later. The result is a trade that feels like a draft-pick scavenger hunt.
Faalele, meanwhile, has barely been part of Jacksonville’s season. He has played just 10 snaps for the Jaguars, which makes the original trade look even stranger now that the same pick is tied to the Godchaux move.
Jacksonville did have a football reason to make the deal. The Jaguars needed help on the defensive front after starting nose tackle DaVon Hamilton went down with a season-ending quad injury in Week 8.
Godchaux is listed at 6-foot-3 and 330 pounds, and while he is not much of a pass rusher, he has a track record of stuffing the run. His familiarity with defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile from their Miami days adds another layer to the move.
For the Giants, the ripple effect is less direct but still relevant. Godchaux was one of the names on the board for a team looking to beef up its defensive line, and now he’s off it. Jacksonville also reportedly looked into Philadelphia’s Moro Ojomo before going another direction, which only underscores how active the market is for interior linemen.
With the deadline about 24 hours away, more names could still move. Grover Stewart, A’Shawn Robinson, and Vita Vea are still worth watching, and Ojomo remains in the conversation even though reports say the Eagles plan to keep and extend him.
Nothing is guaranteed from here, but Godchaux could be the first domino in a market that’s clearly warming up. For the Giants, though, Monday delivered a weird little cameo: they didn’t make the trade, but they’re still part of the story.
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