Three ways for the New York Giants to win the 2025 NFL Draft

We’re into the home stretch before the NFL Draft actually occurs. And thank goodness, because the endless speculating is enough to drive any fan crazy. Like last year, the player(s) the New York Giants (or at least their fans) really want seem to be just tantalizingly out of their reach. In 2024 it was Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye, in some order. This year, it seems to be Cam Ward and Travis Hunter who are unattainable, though we won’t know for sure until Thursday evening.

I love both players, and it will pain me to see them come off the board Nos. 1 and 2 if that’s what happens. I’ll console myself, though, with the knowledge that the guy they did get at No. 6 last year is really, really good. You could argue that they got the second best player in the draft, and only that low because the quarterback position is so coveted in today’s NFL. It’s possible the same may happen this year.

I’ve done fewer mock drafts this year than in years past because I’ve felt that the big boards underlying them bear less resemblance to what’s actually going to happen than in years past. That’s because big boards are about ranking the best players, while the actual draft values quarterbacks more highly than how good they actually are because so many teams are desperate for one, and in today’s NFL you can’t win it all without one. We saw that last year, when fans and the media were speculating that even if the Giants missed out on Daniels, Maye, and Caleb Williams, they could go wide receiver at No. 6 and take one of Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy, or Bo Nix in Round 2, or trade up into the bottom of Round 1 to do so. Instead, all three were gone by No. 12, and they never had a chance even if they had wanted to.

This year is a little different, because all of the top QBs in the draft are considered not to be as good as any of the six taken in Round 1 last year. I don’t necessarily agree with that – Ward, to my non-expert eye, sits in the middle of last year’s top six. Still, you can’t just assume that the board will play out the way you want it to.

Instead, I’m going to do three mock drafts in which I try to solve the Giants’ problems (roster problems, anyway) in different ways. All three will follow these basic rules:

• Cam Ward and Travis Hunter go at No. 1 and No. 2. I do this by drafting for Tennessee and Cleveland as well as the Giants, but after the top 2 picks, I just select the BPA for both of those teams for all subsequent picks regardless of position or perceived need (based on the Pro Football Network mock draft big board).
• For the Giants, though, I try to match value with need in my choices, assuming that the Giants have five needs: The biggest ones, at QB, IDL, and edge defender, and secondary needs, at CB and G. I try to deal with the three biggest needs in picks 3, 34, and 65 if I can without reaching, and then I try to address the other two needs at picks 99 and 105 if possible. The first three Giants picks rotate among the three positions in my three drafts just to show what the possibilities are.
• No trades allowed, and I just do four rounds. I’m not against trades at all. I’m just trying for this exercise to see how the depth of the draft pool at the positions I’m interested in allows me to fill needs without reaching in different ways, since we have no idea what Joe Schoen’s big board looks like, much less those of the other 31 teams.

You may feel the five positions I mention are not the Giants’ biggest needs. I don’t think anyone would argue that a QB of the future and another IDL aren’t huge needs. To me edge defender is a need because Kayvon Thibodeax’s future as a Giant is uncertain and you can’t have too many pass rushers. And anyway it’s a very deep edge class.

Boundary cornerback may not be a need if Tae Banks becomes the player he was drafted to be, or if Tre Hawkins III becomes the player we briefly saw in the Saints game before he got hurt. Barring one of those, though, CB2 is still a big question mark (I assume Dru Phillips at slot corner is a done deal).

I don’t consider G an issue for this season, with Jon Runyan Jr., Greg Van Roten, and maybe Evan Neal holding the fort, but I want a rookie on the roster to be able to fill one of those spots next year. (I would add center to the list but it’s a lean year for those. I could see them taking a C in Round 5.) I did not include offensive tackle, because the Giants are set for this year with Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor as starters, and they signed two free agents, one of whom (James Hudson) is getting $6M guaranteed this year. I won’t be shocked if they take a tackle on Day 2, but my guess is they won’t.

So here are my mock drafts. In my discussions I indicate with a number in parentheses the round in which each player falls relative to the BBV big board that Chris and Nick released yesterday (or “N/A” if the player didn’t make their 5-round big board):

The “don’t pass on an elite player” draft

Courtesy of Pro Football Network

To me this is the most likely scenario for the Giants. I can’t see them passing on an elite talent like Abdul Carter (top 10) at a premier position. He can be part of the edge rotation and also part of the off-ball linebacker rotation, which addresses the objection some people have to using No. 3 on what they see as a part-time player. Jalen Milroe (2) gives them a developmental QB with a ton of potential who can sit for a year and develop his short game. Kenneth Grant (1) is a first round talent who somehow drops to No. 65 in this mock; he’d be just the guy to clog the Giants’ leaky middle next to Dexter Lawrence. Cobee Bryant (4) is an aggressive boundary corner whom I may be overdrafting a bit at No. 99. Miles Frazier (5) is a big and physical guard in the run game, less adept in pass protection.

The “it’s the quarterback, stupid” draft

Courtesy of Pro Football Network

Like many people, I am skeptical that Shedeur Sanders (1-2) can become a top 10 NFL QB and I think it would be a mistake to draft him as high as No. 3. I don’t think it would be Daniel Jones all over again, though. Sanders is a very accurate passer who can make all the throws, he just does not have the zip on his deep ball that you’d like and sometimes holds the ball too long and causes unnecessary pressure. It’s too bad he had such an awful offensive line in front of him; I’d like to know whether he’d have dumped the ball off so much with better protection. Still, I take him No. 3 in this draft because it’s a real possibility the Giants decide to do that and it allows me to explore the implications for filling the other needs in later rounds. Tyleik Williams (1-2) doesn’t excite me as much as Kenneth Grant, but like Grant he’ll clog the middle while he develops his pass rush. Oluwafemi Oladejo (3) is a developmental edge defender but with great potential. (To be honest, I’m tempted to go with Josaiah Stewart here but PFN has him much further down their big board, seemingly because he’s undersized. Chris and Nick see him as a Round 2 value.) Quincy Riley (3) is a good coverage corner in both man and zone with good ball skills but perhaps without the speed to cover deep. Jackson Slater (N/A) is a good pass blocking guard who is less refined in the run game.

The “build the trenches” draft

Courtesy of Pro Football Network

This is probably the least likely scenario to unfold, but if the Giants want to follow the Eagles playbook they could decide to use their first two picks to fill out the defensive line and not take a “skill player” until Round 3. Pick No. 3 is pretty high for a defensive tackle, but Mason Graham (1) is the consensus DT1 in this draft and adding edge Landon Jackson (2) at No. 34 would give the Giants possibly the best DL in the NFL outside of Philadelphia. Is it what I would do if I were Joe Schoen? No, not least because you should be able to get a really good DT at either No. 34 or No. 65, as I did in my other two drafts, and Graham is not obviously that much better than players like Grant or Derrick Harmon. Tyler Shough (2) is a real consideration at No. 65, having come out of nowhere during the run-up to the draft to enter the Day 2 discussion. It’s not even certain he’ll be there at No. 65. Korie Black (N/A) is a physically gifted corner whose mental game has not yet caught up to his physical gifts. Garrett Dellinger (N/A) is a stretch at this point of the draft, but he does have good strength in the run game, and once the first half-dozen or so IOLs are off the board in this IOL-weak draft everyone else is pretty much a toss-up. Overall this draft leaves me with more questions than the other two.

This is clearly my least favorite of the three mocks I did. I don’t know that there is a single player in it that excites me as a slam dunk combination of talent and value where I took them. The first draft is my favorite – I’d be very excited to walk away with Carter, Milroe, and Grant. Not as excited as I’d be if Ward or Hunter dropped to No. 3, but that’s life as a Giants fan. Having Lawrence Taylor be on the board at No. 2 in 1981 probably exhausted my lifetime allocation of good fortune from the football gods.

The bottom line

Not surprisingly, most of the attention in this draft for Giants fans is on the No. 3 pick, and the Giants have no control over who will be available. It’s also a draft that is considered weak at quarterback, although some seemingly strong QB drafts haven’t worked out that way once the games began (see 2021).

You may have noticed that none of my drafts include Jaxson Dart. There are two reasons for that. One is that Dart is likely to be selected in the bottom half of the first round, far from where the Giants pick, and I include no trades in this exercise, so given the rules I set, that’s no-man’s land for the Giants to get him. In reality, the Giants trading back into the first round to get a QB is a possibility. The second reason is that I see Dart as a huge risk, coming from a very simplified half-field first read offense with an inordinate amount of play action. The good news for the Giants is that with Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston on the roster, they do not need a starting QB this year and can afford to draft a developmental QB later. I’d prefer to see the Giants wait for Round 2 or 3 and see whether Brian Daboll’s reputation as a quarterback whisperer can be realized for a second time.

The other good news is that if you want a ferocious defense up front – and who wouldn’t in today’s NFL? – this is a good draft to make that happen. That’s why I wrote this piece – to show that edge defenders and defensive tackles worth drafting can probably be found pretty easily on Day 2 if you want to wait, especially with the Giants drafting so high in both rounds. This gives them more flexibility in this draft than many people assume. They can take a QB on Day 1 if they really like one, and still beef up the DL on Day 2.

The Giants have made some awful draft picks in the past (see this Thursday-Friday-Saturday’s “Big Blue View-in-5” trivia game for three examples). Never say never given this franchise’s recent history, but the odds are that the Giants will come away with at least a couple of really good players at key positions in this draft. They may even become a good team in 2025.