released linebacker Bobby Okereke this week<\/a> to save $9 million in salary cap space, and to begin revamping that position. Micah McFadden is an unrestricted free agent, and it isn\u2019t known whether the Giants want him back.<\/p>\nHead coach John Harbaugh has been clear about the value of the middle linebacker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inside linebacker isn\u2019t always considered a value position but you can\u2019t stop the run without an inside linebacker making tackles in the middle,\u201d Harbaugh said at the NFL Scouting Combine. \u201cYou can\u2019t do it.That becomes pretty important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harbaugh has coached a number of excellent inside linebackers \u2014 Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, C.J. Mosley, Patrick Queen, Roquan Smith. It follows that Harbaugh will not want to settle for just OK at the position.<\/p>\n
The Giants have been said to have been poking around the veteran linebacker market for trade possibilities in recent days, with possibilities including Edmunds and Queen, who is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n
Edmunds is a decorated player<\/p>\n
Edmunds, 6-foot-4, 251 pounds, has started all of the 119 regular-season games in which he has played, and has been named to the Pro Bowl twice. He has 900 tackles and 59 passes defensed in his career, which puts him in pretty good company at this stage:<\/p>\n
There is a Joe Schoen connection<\/p>\n
Giants general manager Joe Schoen was assistant GM with the Buffalo Bills when GM Brandon Beane made Edmunds the 16th overall selection in the 2018 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
Both of Edmunds Pro Bowl appearances came when he was with the Bills.<\/p>\n
Should the Giants make an effort to sign Edmunds? Your thoughts, Giants fans!<\/p>\n
Signing Edmunds would not preclude the Giants from selecting Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles at No. 5 in the 2026 NFL Draft, or using a Day 2 pick on an inside linebacker to play next to him. Pairing a quality veteran with a highly-drafted young player might be a good approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bears had recently given Edmunds and his representation permission to seek a trade. Not finding a team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,7558,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-795488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-new-york-giants-free-agency","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}