The Giants have scouted the top six quarterbacks in the 2025 draft

Will the Giants be able to draft their next franchise quarterback?

The quarterback question is going to hang over the New York Giants coming off-season. Even if the team fires Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, once more hopping on the executive carousel, the question about who will be their starting quarterback will remain.

Regardless of who is making the decisions or coaching the players, the Giants need to find a starting quarterback for 2025. More importantly, they need to find a true Franchise quarterback if they want to be a consistently competitive team. They might be able to find The Guy (or a bridge to The Guy)

Unsurprisingly, the Giants have been scouting the upcoming quarterback class heavily this year. We know that Joe Schoen and Tim McDonnell on hand to scout Cam Ward against Iowa State this weekend. Brandon Brown, Dennis Hickey, and Jesse Armstead, meanwhile, scouted Shedeur Sanders against BYU.

Albert Breer of the Monday Morning Quarterback is reporting that the Giants have had executives scout seven quarterbacks this year:

• Cam Ward (Miami)
• Shedeur Sanders (Colorado)
• Carson Beck (Georgia)
• Quin Ewers (Texas)
• Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss)
• Jalen Milroe (Alabama)
• Garrett Neussmeier (LSU)

Neussmeier returned to school, and Milroe has yet to make his decision regarding the draft. But we can probably safely use that list as a rough guide as to where the Giants are looking for answers to their looming quarterback question.

So let’s take a look at those quarterbacks before the draft process starts in earnest.

(Note: These are very preliminary thoughts on the quarterbacks. I always form my opinions based on the available data, and I could — or will — revize my opinions after several dozen hours studying each player.)

The top two

On the eve of the 2024 NFL Draft, I was of the opinion that each of the top six quarterbacks was worthy of being selected at sixth overall. As of this writing, there are probably only two quarterbacks who could be justifiably taken at the top of the draft: Miami’s Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders out of Colorado.

In all likelihood, the opportunity cost of the Giants’ win over the Indianapolis Colts is that if they want to draft either one, they’ll need to pay a price. That was true either way: Either they pay with a 2-15 season, or they pay through a trade up. But now with the Patriots highly likely to control the first overall pick, with the quarterback-needy Titans and Browns at second and third, the Giants would have to strike a deal with Eliot Wolf (and also beat out any other team that wants to trade up) if either of them is Their Guy.

The Giants were willing to pay the price for Eli Manning back in 2004. The question now is whether they deem Ward or Sanders worth that price.

Cam Ward (Miami) – Ward has emerged as my top quarterback this year. He was a no-star recruit who came from a Wing-T offense in highschool and had to learn how to be a passer in college. Ward got his start at Incarnate Word before transferrign to Washington State and then Miami. He’s a relatively scheme-diverse passer who can attack multiple levels of the defense and execute within the structure of an offense. His calling card is an impressive feel in the pocket to avoid pressure and extend plays, as well as elite arm elasticity to throw from a huge array of arm angles to complete passes off-platform.

Ward has taken some heat from fans and the media for not playing in the second half of Miami’s bowl game against Iowa State. It remains to be seen what (if anything) teams make of the decision.

Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) – Sanders has spent much of the year as the top quarterback on many draft boards. He’s more of a timing and rhythm based quarterback who is at his best within the structure of an offense. He has adequate arm strength to execute most NFL schemes and is an accurate passer when he doesn’t have to go off-script. Sanders isn’t as scheme diverse as Ward, but has a relatively high upside in the “New West Coast” school of offense being pioneered by Sean McVay and Kyle Shannahan.

While Ward is athletic enough to extend plays or scramble for yards, he’s a relatively awkward athlete and shouldn’t be considered a “dual threat” in the backfield. He also has a tendency to hold the ball too long when the structure of the play breaks down and he has a higher pressure to sack rate than any of the Giants’ targets besides Quinn Ewers.

There is some concern among fans and in the media regarding possible distractions from Shedeur’s father and brother. But as with Ward, it’s unknown what team front offices will make of it.

The Giants’ other targets

Per Breer, the Giants have also scouted three other quarterbacks who we know will be in the 2025 NFL Draft. While each of these players has potential and traits that could be developed by a team, they are much more likely to be Day 2 prospects than first rounders.

Quinn Ewers (Texas) – Ewers is a former 5-star recruit and mutliple outlets had him ranked as the top QB in the 2021 recruiting class. Ewers flashes impressive tools with good arm strength and accuracy, the ability to throw with touch, and enough athleticism to extend plays and run if necessary.

His name was been put forward as a potential top QB prospect after 2023, but he didn’t take the expected step forward in 2024. Instead, Ewers has been inconsistent and hasn’t been able to play up to the traits that made him a top recruit. He takes far too many sacks (22.8 percent pressure to sack rate), while having a relatively low average depth of target and few “big time” throws.

Carson Beck (Georgia) – Beck has been linked to the Giants since they passed on a quarterback to draft Malik Nabers last spring. He has prototypical size at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds with enough arm strength to make NFL throws and can move behind the line of scrimmage. I wasn’t as impressed as national pundits were with Beck’s accuracy in 2023 and he took a marked step back in 2024 after losing Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey to the NFL.

Complicating matters, Beck suffered a UCL injury against Texas in the SEC Championship game. He wasn’t playing well in that game before the injury, but that will be teams’ last look at him until he’s able to resume throwing.

Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) – Dart is an intriguing prospect who offers elite physical tools but might never put it all together in the NFL.

Dart had a statistically incredible season that landed him in the Ole Miss record books beside both Archie and Eli manning. He has great arm strength and accuracy, well as the athleticism to be a “dual threat” and be a factor in the running game. In fact, Dart was arguably the best deep-ball passer in the nation this year and led college football in yards on explosive passes.

All of that could appeal to the Giants, who’ve built their offense to use the vertical element to create space underneath.

However, he only really performed against weaker opponents and Lane Kiffin’s offense is much more wide-open than what Dart will see in the NFL. There are questions whether he’ll be able to adapt to NFL offenses, though the fact that he hasn’t played in that style of offense doesn’t mean he can’t.

Status pending

Per Breer, the Giants also showed enough interest in LSU’s Garrett Neussmeier to send executives to scout him. However, Neussmeier returned to school for the 2025 season. That was almost certainly the correct decision for him, but it took a choice off the board for the Giants.

Jalen Milroe (Alabama) – Milroe’s skill set as an explosive (but smart) runner with an excellent deep ball to challenge all areas of the field would fit well within the Giants’ scheme and personnel. But while he’s shown remarkable improvement over the last two years, he still needs development as a technician and field general. It’s also notable that Milroe comes from a military family (his mother was Navy, his father a Marine), which would likely appeal to the Giants.

That said, Milroe is in a state of limbo as far as the draft is concerned. His developmental trajectory and elite athletic upside could make him a first round prospect. However, he has yet to declare for the draft and he — like Neussmeier and Drew Allar — could return to school. While there’s an expectation that Milroe will declare, he could decide that he has “unfinished business” after Alabama missed the expanded College Football Playoffs.