When the New York Giants hired Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen to run their football operations in 2022, they were hoping he would make history with them.
Thus far, Schoen has made the wrong kind of history, the infamous kind, as the Giants have gone 22-45-1 in his four years here.
But Schoen has been given a second chance to prove that he can do the job. Teaming him with head coach John Harbaugh and senior vice president of football operations and strategy Dawn Aponte, the Giants feel they are on the verge of a new era of winning football.
On Saturday, Schoen dealt his unhappy Pro Bowl nose tackle, Dexter Lawrence, to the Cincinnati Bengals for the 10th overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft.
The Giants now hold the fifth and 10th overall picks in this draft. Should they make both picks, Schoen will become the first general manager in NFL history to have two separate drafts with multiple top-10 picks for the same franchise.
The Giants will become the 22nd team since the common draft began in 1967 to make two selections in the top-10 in the same draft. Schoen is set to become the only GM to do it twice for the same team.
The Giants had two picks in the top 10 in Schoen’s first season as general manager, 2022, selecting Oregon linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux at No. 5 and Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal at No. 7.
Both players are still with the team heading into Year 5. Thibodeaux had the fifth-year team option on his rookie deal picked up while Neal was re-signed to a one-year free agent deal this spring.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Joe Schoen on verge of unique NFL draft history with New York Giants
Reporting by John Fennelly, Giants Wire / Giants Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
