Giants Tried To Trade For Chiefs LB Drue Tranquill In March

In mid-March, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan reported that the Giants tried to trade for a notable veteran linebacker — not 49ers LB Fred Warner despite speculation. 

Now Raanan has updated his report to give the name of the player: Chiefs LB Drue Tranquill. 

“The linebacker that the Giants actually were going to trade for, from the Kansas City Chiefs — it seemed to be before the start of free agency — Drue Tranquill,” Raanan said on his Breaking Big Blue podcast. “He ended up staying in Kansas City, taking a pay cut to stay. Seems to be something he wanted to do. He didn’t want to leave there.”

Raanan said at the time the deal fell through because the player didn’t want to relocate. Tranquill reduced his base salary to stay with the Chiefs, taking a $2.5 million pay cut.  

Linebacker remains a position that the giants are open to addressing even after re-signing Micah McFadden and adding Tremaine Edmunds in free agency. 

Tranquill, 30, is a former fourth-round pick of the Chargers back in 2019. He finished his four-year, $3.2 million contract and was testing the market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career when he signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs.

From there, Kansas City re-signed him to a three-year, $19 million contract a couple of years ago. He agreed to a pay cut ahead of the 2026 season, lowering his salary from $6 million to $3.5 million. 

In 2025, Tranquill appeared in all 17 games for the Chiefs and tallied 103 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, two sacks, one pass defense, one forced fumble and a recovery.

We’ll have more on the Giants as the news is available.