Shedeur Sanders is ‘a great kid’, but will he be the New York Giants next quarterback?

GM Joe Schoen offers praise, but no commitment

Video after video from the East-West Shrine Bowl showed New York Giants GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll having casual interactions with quarterback Shedeur Sanders, a potential target for the Giants at No. 3 in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.

Schoen, who values those interactions as a way of getting to know these draft prospects as people, couldn’t hide his feelings about the Colorado quarterback when media caught up with him Tuesday at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

“He’s a great kid, he’s a great kid, a really good personality, football smart, his dad is a football coach,” Schoen said via the team’s website. “It’s a little bit cliché, but he checks all the boxes of a [player with a] dad that is a football coach and the passion that he approaches the game with,” Schoen said about the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado coach Deion Sanders. “It was good getting to meet him. He’s had a really good career at Colorado and obviously looking forward to getting to knowing all those guys in the rest of the process.”

Schoen, of course, is not going to commit to drafting Sanders or Miami quarterback Cam Ward in Round 1. Quarterback is the Giants’ biggest need, but there are other players whose selection would improve the team.

“We’re going to be open to anything,” Schoen said. “We’re in a good position sitting at three with the players that are available. By process of elimination, we know we’re going to get a good player. Regardless of what happens the next couple of months, we know there’s going to be a really good player there.”

First-hand intel

One of the advantages of a bad season is that a team’s assistant coaches are available for roles on the coaching staffs of the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl, the two biggest college all-star showcase games for draft prospects.

The Giants have two coaches at the Shrine Bowl. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen is West Team head coach and linebackers coach John Egorugwu is the West’s defensive coordinator.

The Giants have five assistant coaches working in the Senior Bowl. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is head coach of the National Team. Working on the sidelines for the American Team are running backs coach Joel Thomas (offensive coordinator), assistant defensive backs coach Mike Adams (defensive backs coach), assistant offensive line coach James Ferentz (offensive line coach), and offensive assistant coach Angela Baker (tight ends coach).

Four of the Giants’ six selections in the 2024 draft played in one of those games — Dru Phillips (Senior Bowl), tight end Theo Johnson (Senior Bowl), running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (Shrine Bowl) and linebacker Darius Muasau (Shrine Bowl).

Schoen admitted that information learned from having coaches in those games helped guide the decisions to draft those players.

“To me, it’s a competitive advantage,” Schoen said. “They’re in the meetings with these kids. They get to know who’s on time, who’s late, who’s early, who can learn the playbook. To me, it’s just a competitive advantage for us, and fortunately our coaches are willing to participate in the process and they’re all in on it. They do really good write-ups on the kids. It helped us last year.”