As the NFL trade deadline neared, it was easy pickings to sidle up to Janoris Jenkins, Alec Ogletree or Nate Solder and ask: Do you want to leave the Giants?

A more succinct question was this: Why the heck would you want to stay?

There’s the traffic, the taxes, the crowds, the weather and the losing. All that losing. So much losing.

For veterans closer to the end of their playing careers than the beginning, why not try to bail on all of it and hope to get shipped to a new team more accustomed to winning?

“It’s not easy,’’ Ogletree told The Post on Wednesday. “I’ve been a part of teams much worse than this. When you lose, it’s easy to say, ‘I can go somewhere else and be better.’ For us, we pride ourselves in being able to be resilient and try to make this team better.’’

Throughout the league, players either loudly or softly made it clear they would welcome a change of scenery. There was not a hint of that around the Giants. For all the flak coach Pat Shurmur gets, no one can accuse his team of fraying at the seams or tuning him out. He has not been able to cajole the Giants into winning enough games, and if that continues it will be his undoing.

He says, “We try to live in the real world,” and in the real world of the NFL, winning 29 percent of the time (he is 7-17 with the Giants) will not cut it. The real world, though, is also about attitude and staying on message, and the Giants, despite losing four straight games heading into Monday night’s meeting with the Cowboys, have not strayed from the direction Shurmur mapped out for the franchise.

“I think they really do feel like we’re on the right path,’’ Shurmur told The Post after practice. “We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to win a couple of these games and didn’t quite do it yet, for whatever reason, and they’re looking to change that. I do believe they believe in the message, and I do believe they see a direction.’’

The wearing down that grinds at players, sapping their bodies and spirits, is alive in the locker room. You can see it etched on the face of Evan Engram, just 25 and already well-versed in how to act and what to say after getting beat. The Giants are 10-30 since his arrival in 2017, when as a rookie he revealed himself as a stand-up guy amid the pratfalls of his team.

Engram was more concerned a year ago hearing his name mentioned as a possible trade chip — there was a new coach in Shurmur and a general manager, Dave Gettleman, who did not draft him. It would not have been disloyal for Engram to wonder if getting moved to a playoff contender might bolster his career.

If that scenario played out in Engram’s mind, he never let it out.

“This team drafted me here, so this is like my home, and I really want to be a part of the turnaround and the fight,’’ Engram said. “Even the little winning we’ve done, it’s great to win in this city, it’s great to win in this franchise. A lot of guys are motivated to turn this thing around and keep fighting. I think that’s a testament to the culture we’ve started to build and the expectations we have on ourselves and the guys we have in this locker room that we want to keep fighting against adversity.’’

Shurmur, often so rough with the media, has not lost his players.

“He’s very low-key with ya’ll,’’ Engram said. “He’s definitely more talkative with us. He’s a guy that’s gonna keep fighting. That’s what he preaches to us, I think his biggest message is just to keep fighting and stay together.’’

A few minutes after Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline passed, Ogletree posted a simple message on his Twitter account: two partying-face emojis.

Ogletree actually laughed when this was pointed out to him.

“It was party time,’’ he said. “Party hats. Trade deadline is over with, definitely happy for everybody that was here. I was able to stay here and happy to be here. If you feel good about a situation you definitely want to stay in it.’’

Again, this begs the question: Why?

“I think,’’ Ogletree said, “we always have a chance to win here.’’

For more on the Giants, listen to the latest episode of the “Blue Rush” podcast: