The New York Giants may be getting ready to face the New York Jets in their second preseason game, but we’re also nine days away from the start of the 2025 College Football Season.
The NFL is perfectly capable of walking and chewing bubblegum at the same time, so while the coaches are focused on the regular season, scouting departments are already studying the players likely to be in the 2026 NFL Draft.
I like to say “It’s always draft season,” and The Ringer draft analyst (formerly of ESPN) Todd McShay agrees, releasing his “Appropriately Early Mock Draft” on Thursday morning. And in contrast to the “Way Too Early” mock drafts in the immediate wake of the draft, this draft is the product of the work he (and co-host Steve Muench, who concentrated on offensive tackles) have done scouting over the summer.
The draft order is based on FanDuel’s Super Bowl odds, putting the Giants’ at No. 3 overall.
3. New York Giants – Spencer Fano (OT, Utah)
“They’ve got a couple of offensive tackles, three offensive linemen, set to be free agents next year,” McShay said on his podcast. “Including Jermaine Eluemunor, Evan Neal, and Greg Van Roten. [Left tackle] Andrew Thomas is coming off the Lisfranc.”
“I think that offensive line’s got a chance to be a lot better than people expect. Marcus Mbow they drafted (this year), by the way, Marcus Mbow is having a good camp. That’s ‘our guy’ from Purdue, I think he gets a little stronger and there’s something there.”
“Violent, athletic, it’s not all clean,” Muench said about Fano. “It’s not all clean. But that gives you is the opportunity to see what happens when he gets caught in a bad spot. I remember watching when the Jets took Alijah Vera Tucker out of USC, I remember Joe Douglas, who was the GM of the Jets at the time, talking about ‘what happens when Vera Tucker gets caught out of position how does he recover?’ And they were so impressed with his ability to recover. Man, I see Fano and when he’s clean with his technique, it is beautiful, but when he does things that he’s not supposed to, he still wins. And when you’re looking at that kind of a talent, I would have no problem taking him in the Top 5.”
Raptor’s Thoughts
First and foremost, I’d encourage everyone to go back and read my Summer Scouting report on Fano. I tend to agree with Muench that he has the floor of a very good tackle in the NFL, with potentially elite upside if he can clean up his technique. He’s also started a season at each of right and left tackle, and he should be able to play either side at the NFL level.
While Fano goes third overall in McShay’s mock, he currently sits at 17th overall on the Consensus Big Board, so he very well could be available for the Giants.
Taking a step back, let’s take a quick look at the long-term questions on the Giants’ roster and I think the biggest ones are, in order:
- Cornerback
- Offensive tackle
- Wide receiver
After those, the Giants’ roster looks pretty solid across the board. And frankly, those needs might not even exist once the season is over. So overall, I think drafting an offensive lineman in the first round is one of the best “needs based” outcomes wherever the Giants happen to be picking.
Ideally, the Giants will be in a position to draft purely based on Best Player Available, because the various questions entering the season have been answered positively. Ideally, either Deonte Banks or Cor’Dale Flott have proven to be a consistently good starter at cornerback and the Giants don’t have a pressing need at wide receiver thanks to Darius Slayton and Jalin Hyatt. Hopefully, Andrew Thomas is able to return to form and stay healthy at left tackle, John Michael Schmitz continues to improve at center, and Evan Neal secures the right guard job.
That would only leave the right tackle position as a question for the Giants, and that may even be answered by Mbow.
The Giants could re-sign Eluemunor as a high-quality four-tool depth piece and draft a player like Fano to compete with Mbow for the starting job.
Of course, things probably won’t go ideally for the Giants, and it’s entirely possible that Neal isn’t able to secure the right guard job and Eluemunor is either allowed to walk in free agency or moves inside to guard (the position he was originally signed to play), which could still make right tackle a need.
The good news is that this looks like it’ll be a strong year for offensive linemen, as well as defensive linemen. So we’ll have a lot of “good on good” reps to study on all of these players.
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