Kadarius Toney might wind up winning a Super Bowl ring this season — which would be quite the happy ending to this rocky season for him, after the Giants sent him packing.
But Giants general manager Joe Schoen still made the right move trading Toney.
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Both things can be true, as Toney and the Chiefs prepare to face the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Because while Toney has flashed at times since joining the Chiefs, he has continued to show issues with inconsistency and injuries — both of which were problems for him with the Giants.
Most recently, an ankle injury knocked him out of Sunday’s AFC Championship Game win over the Bengals. Toney played four offensive snaps and one on special teams in that game. He was targeted twice and had one catch for 9 yards. And he returned one punt for 12 yards.
Schoen, in late October, was able to get a 2023 compensatory third-round draft pick and a sixth-rounder for Toney — who was last year’s 20th overall pick. Obviously, a lot of the trade’s final verdict will hinge on what Schoen does with those picks, especially the third-rounder. But it’s hard to argue with the deal so far, even though Toney has finally provided glimpses of his raw talent.
Toney has now been with the Chiefs for 12 games, including the playoffs. He missed three of them with a hamstring injury, which also was an issue for him with the Giants. In the other nine games, Toney had just two impressive performances — 90 total yards and a touchdown against the Jaguars in Week 10 (his second Chiefs game) and 71 total yards against the Broncos in Week 17.
Here’s what Toney has done in his other seven games, in terms of total yards: zero, five, eight (and a touchdown), 9, 12, 44 (and a touchdown), and 50.
Those latter two solid (but not dominant) showings came in back-to-back games — Week 18 at the Raiders and then in the divisional round of the playoffs against Jacksonville. So it seemed maybe Toney was building toward something, entering the AFC title game, with three straight good games.
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And then he got hurt again.
More of the same for Toney, who missed 12 of 24 possible games with the Giants and had just 449 total yards and zero touchdowns. Through a season and a half, he looked like a total bust.
Yes, Toney remains an intriguing gadget player — a versatile piece, when healthy (which isn’t often enough). But he’s not a consistently high-impact player. And so he wasn’t worth the headache for Schoen and the Giants, who are trying to build a culture of dependability under coach Brian Daboll. Toney ultimately wasn’t going to be the singular answer for the Giants’ depleted receiver room.
Schoen this offseason still needs to find more weapons for quarterback Daniel Jones — most notably, a No. 1 receiver. So it’s not like Schoen solved everything for Daboll and Jones just by trading away Toney. But even though Toney is in the Super Bowl, the trade remains the correct call.
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Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com.
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