Should Giants trade for Jonathan Taylor? What's next for Kirk Cousins, Chiefs WRs? NFL trade deadline questions emerge from Sunday's games

The conversation began two minutes into the second half.

The New York Giants' running backs had carried the ball eight times for a net 8 yards at that point. They'd traversed negative 20 yards before contact, according to the broadcast's Next Gen Stats graphic.

So Fox color analyst Greg Olsen, who spent 14 years as an NFL tight end, knew the question fans would ask themselves: Should the Giants, leading a struggling NFC East, trade for a veteran running back?

"I think they got to press pause here and take a clean look at it," Olsen said.

"If you get hit in the backfield," play-by-play announcer Joe Davis agreed, "it doesn't matter who you are."

Olsen contextualized the Giants' running back interest against the Eagles signing Saquon Barkley in 2024.

"I like to say: Good backs don't make bad run games good," Olsen said. "Good backs — in Saquon's case, great backs — make good run games great. So typically you want to have the offensive line, you want to have the run scheme, you want to have that element, you want to have that box checked.

" Then you add a Jonathan Taylor or a Kenneth Walker or a Saquon Barkley. The examples of going that order of operations are the ones that typically work the best."

Whoever cuts film for the Giants leadership might want to include that audio.

The Giants have struggled to develop consistency in their run game this season as injuries have limited running backs Cam Skattebo, Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary. Add a season-ending injury to mobile starting quarterback Jaxson Dart and a benching earlier this season to Skattebo, and the Giants have compiled an effective rushing attack every other week this season. Their offensive line ranks 18th in run-block win rate, per ESPN's advanced metric .

On Sunday, facing an injured and reeling Eagles team without Skattebo (hamstring), the Giants rushed for 80 total yards including a combined 33 from quarterbacks J.J. McCarthy and Jameis Winston.

Would Taylor help? And perhaps more importantly: Is he worth the Christian McCaffrey-like return the Colts are seeking, which equates to roughly a 2027 second- , third- and fourth-round pick as well as a 2028 fifth?

"I'd say we're open for any kind of situation, but I will say this, things do change," Harbaugh said. "Things change from day to day. So it's not like one day you may do something and the next day something happens and it changes your position. I'm not saying that report's not true. Those conversations are taking place, and if something happens for any player, I can't talk about any player because they're with other teams right now.

"We're not ruling anything out, but I don't see anything particularly imminent right now either. So we'll see what happens."

Complicating matters might be McCarthy's health. McCarthy left the game in the third quarter with a hip injury suffered on a hit from linebacker Zack Baun, the quarterback returning but then limping after a scramble. He finished the game. But if the Giants' run game requires quarterback mobility to jell, is McCarthy — their current mobile option, with Dart out for the season — durable enough?

And if that's in question, is a haul of future draft capital worth spending during the first season of the Harbaugh era?

At 5-2-1, the Giants hold a comfortable 65% chance of making the playoffs, per Next Gen Stats .

But their wins have all come against sub-.500 teams. Their schedule will thicken after this week's Thursday division game against the Washington Commanders. Five of their following six opponents are currently better than .500.

Taylor may help, albeit without seeming necessary, for the Giants to win the division. Will an offense pairing Taylor with McCarthy or Winston, pending health, help the Giants win a playoff game? And if not, are the Giants better off re-exploring the position this spring, at a lower cost?

"Somebody's got to come out that you really want to trade for that makes sense," Harbaugh said. "It's got to make sense short term and long term. We're not just going to go for a short-term fix at an exorbitant cost …

"Usually when you do that sort of thing, it doesn't work out for you."

What else from Sunday may impact this week's trade deadline? Here are two more stories to keep an eye on:

How much longer will Kirk Cousins be in Vegas?

At this point, it seems more likely than not that Cousins will stay put in Vegas and the Raiders will spare rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza the gauntlet of Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns defenses next on the Raiders' schedule.

Even after posting his worst game of the season in a Sunday loss to the San Francisco 49ers , Cousins is still valuable to head coach Klint Kubiak and the franchise. His 2,340 passing yards rank fifth in the league and his 97.1 passer rating ranks 12th.

The Raiders will not simply give away Cousins.

But after Monday night, a team could be increasingly eager to test the price.

A Vikings team with the No. 1-ranked scoring defense and No. 27-ranked scoring offense hosts a red-hot Buffalo Bills team on Monday night. Minnesota will have a chance to see the areas of its team that are ready to compete deep into the playoffs and the areas that are not.

To this point, offense — and especially quarterback — have been glaring weaknesses. Kyler Murray has completed 64.9% of pass attempts for 1,022 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions while Carson Wentz has completed 59% for 276 yards, three touchdowns and no picks.

The Raiders, with Cousins, have posted 331 yards per game to the Vikings' 279.4. And Cousins already knows head coach Kevin O'Connell's Vikings system intimately after playing in it in 2022 and 2023.

One league source thought a third-round pick would compel the Raiders to send Cousins to Minnesota and move on to Mendoza, recouping capital for a player who won't net a compensatory pick if he leaves in the spring due to his contract structure. Two other league sources put Cousins' value as ranging from a fifth to a fourth, possibly with a conditional clause in the trade.

"That makes sense for them," a high-ranking AFC executive said of the Vikings. "It'd be low start-up cost because he understands the offense already. They have enough around him that it wouldn't be like he's shouldering everything.

"It shouldn't cost more than a fourth or a fifth given his age [38] and you're probably renting him. That's probably a fourth."

While Sunday marked Cousins' first game this year with more interceptions (three) than touchdowns (one), two league sources said they did not expect that to influence Cousins' value at all given his large sample size of work, the Vikings' familiarity with Cousins and the 49ers' known defensive strengths.

The Raiders slipping from playoff contention — they have just a 14% chance of making the postseason, per Next Gen Stats — could increase their interest in moving Cousins for the right price. Monday night's game could sway the Vikings' interest.

How badly do the Chiefs need receiver help?

Two weeks ago, the leading Chiefs receiver was Cyrus Allen with 18 receiving yards. Last week, the leader in the room was Rashee Rice with 53 yards. And this week, in a 35-12 win over the New York Jets, Rice's 49 led the room.

The Chiefs need help. Manufacturing a passing game with tight ends and running backs will limit their ceiling in a postseason run. Add a hamstring injury to Xavier Worthy on Sunday, and the offense's reliance on running back Kenneth Walker III makes it too vulnerable.

Patrick Mahomes' reliance on 37-year-old tight end Travis Kelce is not sustainable. And after an MRI confirmed Mahomes' elbow injury was a strain or sprain in severity, per NFL Network , the Chiefs can feel comfortable moving forward with a trade.

The Chiefs haven't hidden their interest in a receiver. Nine weeks into the season, the case for a trade is strong. They're 6-2 with a 92% chance to make the playoffs, per Next Gen Stats. Their run game is potent, their offense the second-most productive in the league. Only eight teams have allowed fewer yards on defense than the Chiefs' 307.9 per game, per TruMediaSports.

Who might elevate the pass-catching group?

The Jacksonville Jaguars' Brian Thomas Jr. likely offers the highest ceiling if Jacksonville is willing to trade him. That reality is unclear: While Thomas is averaging just 2.75 targets a game and playing just 43% of offensive snaps, the Jaguars might value him as a field-stretcher for now and insurance if their corps sustains an injury . League sources expect Thomas to cost roughly a third-round pick to compel the Jaguars to trade him, with that value ranging from a fourth to a second depending on how competitive the market is and whether the Jaguars could recoup something else they need (hello, defensive tackle) in return.

"If I'm them, I'm not giving away any talent, no matter how useful they are, as long as they're not a detriment from a behavior or execution standpoint," the high-ranking AFC executive said. "OK, he's underperforming being a first-round pick, fine. But you're an injury away from, OK, if he's not there, who's playing receiver?

"Your goals are much different than everybody else's. So I would only move that dude before the season is over … if the price is just too good."

Indianapolis Colts receiver Josh Downs and Tennessee Titans receiver Calvin Ridley appear to be lower-ceiling, available options. Cowboys receiver George Pickens should be worth calling on, though team owner Jerry Jones seems unlikely to budge. And then there's San Francisco 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk as well as former Chiefs and Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, who each have the potential to boom or bust with questions about their health and readiness to positively impact a team. Historically, the Chiefs have not been deterred by risk.