This is a developing trend coming out of the Combine
There are two distinct drum beats growing louder when it comes to the quarterbacks at the top of the 2025 NFL Draft. One is the idea that the New York Giants will trade up to No. 1 for Miami’s Cam Ward. The other is that Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders could slide on draft day.
That is exactly what happened in a newly-released mock draft from Dane Brugler of The Athletic.
Brugler has the Giants trading up to No. 1 with the Tennessee Titans and selecting Ward. He has Sanders sliding all the way to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21.
On Ward to the Giants, Brugler writes:
The Giants need to make a splash in a quarterback market that is more of a puddle than an ocean.
This is the only trade I am projecting in this mock, and it probably would be the least-surprising move if it comes to fruition. Packaging a pair of Day 2 picks to move up from No. 3 to No. 1 likely would be enough to put Ward in a Giants jersey.
Brugler also acknowledges what has become increasingly obvious, that “Ward is widely viewed as the top guy this year.”
On Sanders sliding to Pittsburgh, Brugler writes:
Sanders is going to be a wild card in this draft. He could go in the top six or fall out of the first round entirely — and neither outcome would be a shock.
He is not a first-round quarterback for a lot of NFL teams, which isn’t a major surprise (and matches my evaluation). But all it takes is one front office to roll the dice on his skill set. If Sanders falls out of the top 10, this would be an interesting landing spot. The Steelers are searching for answers at the QB position.
In a Monday mock draft from Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, Sanders slid all the way to No. 29. Zierlein had the Cleveland Browns trading back into the first round with the Washington Commanders to select Sanders.
There has been some chatter that Sanders, who did not work out at the NFL Scouting Combine, turned off some teams with his attitude during meetings with them.
Shedeur Sanders chose not to throw at the Combine, & while @dpbrugler doesn’t think it will hurt him, it could be a missed opportunity.
“I think the feedback from the interviews has definitely been mixed with Shedeur, and the best way I can describe it is it’s not, he’s not a… pic.twitter.com/1pa12z0Bq7
— GoJo and Golic (@GoJoandGolic) March 4, 2025
Todd McShay of The Ringer addressed the Sanders situation in his draft newsletter. Here is some of what he wrote:
I spoke to two high-ranking individuals who work in personnel departments for two different NFL teams selecting in the top 10, each of whom was present for their team’s official meeting with Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Both of them told me they came away unimpressed with Sanders’s attitude during the meeting. One of them said Sanders “wasn’t taking it all that seriously.” The other said he didn’t have a “professional approach.” The general sense I got in talking to these two individuals is that they left the meeting feeling like Sanders wasn’t overly concerned with what they thought of him …
Each of these individuals, I should add, works for a team that is in need of a quarterback. With that said, however, I can think of many stories I’ve been told about these meetings. Sometimes, if players don’t feel as though they’ll fall to a certain team, they aren’t as engaged …
It feels as though the distance between Ward and Sanders has grown, and Ward is the clear no. 1 option. The question now is how QB-needy teams can position themselves to select him … it’s possible Shedeur’s been given assurances, and this is all moot. But if that’s not the case, there are quite a few ways this could play out.
So, the quarterback plot thickens.
