The New York Giants head into the offseason with a long to-do list. As mentioned in an end-of-season interview with co-owner John Mara, general manager Joe Schoen, and head coach Brian Daboll, the top priority is finding the next starting quarterback.
There are two outstanding quarterback prospects in this draft (Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders), and as fate would have it, the Giants have the third overall pick and the two teams ahead of them, Tennessee and Cleveland, are on the market. For the quarterback.
This leaves Schoen with several options. One is to move up to one of the top two spots or to put together a package to try to find a quarterback later in the draft some other way.
But the question lingering over the Giants is whether they love either of these two players enough to mortgage their future.
The answer is probably. SNY’s Connor Hughes reports The Giants had a Day 2 grade on Sanders last year and preferred him over Ward this year.
Sanders was a hot topic in league circles. It was like that even before the season ended. The Giants actually had a completed report ready for Sanders if he declared for the draft last year. He would have been targeted in the second or third round.
Mara made it very clear after the season that his commitment to this regime only covers 2025. If he feels the same way next year, he’ll make major changes. This mandate, which NFL Network even said meant the playoffs, signals the need for drastic change. Mara also made it clear that the Giants’ top priority is finding a franchise quarterback.
That tells you the Giants will do everything they can to secure their quarterback. As mentioned above, the big question is whether the Titans or Browns are willing to take a step back.
The Giants might look at Sanders if the Browns pass, as Ward likely won’t get past Cleveland if Tennessee passes on him. But I don’t expect that to happen.
This is not the year to be in the market for a quarterback. There’s no Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, or Drake Maye here. It seems unlikely that any team would be willing to go high in this year’s draft to take one of these quarterbacks.
There’s also an element of fit for Sanders. It’s a team that his famous father, Deion Sanders, could have turned down because he didn’t think it was a good fit for his son.
Are the Giants the right team for Deion? If not, that would be a reason to avoid him when you have the chance.
But again, it’s highly unlikely that Ward or Sanders will make it past the Titans and Browns, two desperate teams in need of a facelift.
