'Hard Knocks': Giants GM Joe Schoen won't let seventh-round pick hold up Brian Burns trade

Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO through July 30 and is available to stream on Max.

Often regarded as a game of inches, football’s likewise a game of statistical fractions and late-round draft choices, it would seem.

Looking to nail down a trade for pass rusher Brian Burns, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen revealed some of the negotiating hiccups with Carolina Panthers GM Dan Morgan in a preview for the third episode of Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.

“What are we doing, Dan? Why do we need to add on a seventh, Dan?” Schoen said in a phone conversation with Morgan. “Like, c’mon. You and I are going to be doing this a long time — hopefully.”

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As Schoen and Morgan are no doubt aiming to hold their GM gigs for an extended period of time, the trade fencing didn’t last much longer. In the end, Schoen and the G-Men landed Burns, a two-time Pro Bowler with 46 sacks in five seasons, and a 2024 fifth-round pick in exchange for 2024 second- and fifth-round picks and a 2025 fifth-rounder.

“Good doing business with you, buddy,” Schoen says after putting the trade together.

Morgan and Schoen’s back-and-forth for Burns began at the 2024 Senior Bowl, as seen in the series’ first episode. Interestingly enough, that first episode showed Schoen was, at least initially, willing to part with a first-round pick. That didn’t end up coming to fruition, though.

Big Blue also didn’t have to part with any seventh-rounders, as revealed by a Schoen vent shortly after the call ended and he and his fellow front-officers celebrated the transaction.

“Alright, it’s done,” he said. “They tried to wear me down to a seventh-round (pick) and a half a sack.”

Thus far, the Giants’ offseason showing has been a compelling pulling back of the curtain that’s shed light on the year ahead for Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley‘s negotiations, head coach Brian Daboll’s straight-line speed and Big Blue trading for Burns. The latter has been put to bed, but there are storylines aplenty to play out as the show runs through July.