Giants GM promised to draft defensive player before trade with Jaguars

Trent Baalke made sure the Giants weren’t going to take Anton Harrison before trading with them.

Earlier this month, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane said he had to answer several questions from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Trent Baalke before he was finally able to acquire the No. 25 pick. Evidently, Baalke made New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen do the same thing.

In a behind-the-scenes video published Thursday by the Giants, Schoen is shown making phone calls to several teams about a trade. It isn’t until he has a conversation with Baalke that a deal finally gets done.

“Hey Trent, you still interested?” Schoen asks in the video. “You’ve got my word, it’s defense.”

Schoen says in the video that he’s concerned about the Buffalo Bills or Kansas City Chiefs jumping up to take the player he covets. After the deal with the Jaguars to shield off those competitors, Schoen kept his promise by selecting Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks with the No. 24 overall pick.

Baalke later made another deal with the Bills, but not before essentially confirming that the team wasn’t going to pick offensive tackle Anton Harrison.

After moving down twice and picking up three extra draft picks (used to select Tyler Lacy, Antonio Johnson, and Derek Parish), the Jaguars finally picked Harrison at No. 27 overall.

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