Joe Schoen gets a quarterback, and pumps some hope back into the franchise
After two horrible seasons that included a Saquon Barkley fiasco, a Daniel Jones implosion, a 9-25 record, nearly losing their jobs and having co-owner John Mara sound lukewarm about his decision to keep them, general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll needed to do something big this offseason.
They managed just that in Round 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Giants hit a home run, pulling off the double dip of getting a game-changing defender at No. 3 in Abdul Carter considered to be one of the two best prospects in the draft class, then sliding back into Round 1 to get the potential franchise quarterback of the future they have been trying to put in place for at least the last two offseasons by selecting Jaxson Dart at No. 25.
That crazy, strange feeling you may be experiencing as a Giants fan? One that you may not have felt for a while and may only have distant memories of?
That’s called hope.
After two seasons of being laughed at for the product they have put on the field and for the way they ended up looking during their ill-conceived appearance last offseason on ‘Hard Knocks’, the Giants needed to change the narrative that they were a bumbling, lost franchise with a GM and head coach who were dead men walking.
Mission accomplished.
In Carter, they got a player respected college football analyst Joel Klatt says “could have an even bigger impact than Micah Parsons in the National Football League.”
Parsons, also from Penn State has 52.5 sacks in four seasons and has made the Pro Bowl each year.
Carter joins Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Brian Burns and a handful of capable veterans in a suddenly imposing-looking defensive front seven for the Giants. Combine that with a secondary revamped in free agency with the additions of cornerback Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland and it seems clear the improvements on defense Mara insisted on in January have been made.
Mara also made clear in January that “the number one issue for us going into this offseason, is to find our quarterback of the future.”
Pulling off the feat of improving the team for 2025 AND finding a potential franchise quarterback of the future seemed a tall task for Schoen in a year where the pickings were considered slim in the draft.
Schoen tried to get Matthew Stafford from the Los Angeles Rams. He flirted with Aaron Rodgers in free agency. He signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to — hopefully — improve the team in 2025 and to hold the seat warm for a quarterback of the future. He offered a pair of first-round picks to the Tennessee Titans to move to No. 1 and select Cam Ward.
None of that brought Schoen the quarterback of the future that the Giants’ franchise needed, and that Schoen and Daboll needed to help convince ownership that they have Giants on the right path.
There were rumors that the New Orleans Saints liked Dart, and might even take him at No. 9. That didn’t happen.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on Dart and Shedeur Sanders at No. 21, Schoen began to fervently press the remaining teams with selections in Round 1 to find a trade partner.
“We started after Pittsburgh,” Schoen said. “Maybe in the 22, 23 range we started to look to move up. A lot of teams just decided to stay and pick, so again, you try to do deals, you try to move up, and if teams want to stay and pick, there’s just not much you can do there. We kept chipping away, and a lot of good relationships with general managers around the league, so easy conversations. The teams that weren’t going to move back were up front and pretty straightforward right off the bat, so that allowed us to get ahead of the next team and start working through potential trades.”
Give Schoen, much-maligned for his handling some of the high profile decisions of the past couple of offseasons, credit for reading the quarterback tea leaves correctly.
“That’s the hard part,” Schoen said. “There’s 31 other teams, and sometimes we assume everybody sees things the way we do. That’s not always the case, so again, you take the information you have, you try to gather as much as you can throughout the day, and sometimes you get a feel for what teams are doing and sometimes you have no idea.
“Hats off to my staff. They do a great job of making these calls around the league, and the pro scouting staff puts together needs, so we have kind of the top priorities that the teams need, so you go off that. Hey, do we need to move up here, no, not really, they’re probably going to go this position or whatever it may be. Very professional in the room, very detailed. It was a collaborative effort amongst the group to be able to execute the way we did.”
Of course, all of the excitement of what the Giants accomplished on Thursday night will die on the vine if it doesn’t work on the field.
If Wilson and Winston can’t carry the Giants to a decent season while Dart learns the NFL ropes. If Carter, who Schoen called “a special talent”, and his pals don’t defend the way it looks on paper like they might be able to.
Mostly, though, it will die if Dart doesn’t become the quarterback the Giants need. That, of course, is anything but a guarantee.
After years of work on quarterbacks over the last four draft classes, particularly the last two, Schoen and Daboll finally decided Dart was the guy they wanted to go forward with. That, by the way, is a decision they said wasn’t finalized until some time on Monday.
Schoen said it was “gratifying” to finally have their guy after the years of work.
“It’s been exhausting, to be honest with you,” Schoen said. “We’ve been, whether it’s here all week and then you go on the road in the fall or all the way up to Easter weekend, we’re still on the road. Credit to the coaches, my staff, the film they watch, the area scouts putting us in the correct direction on the quarterbacks to go see.
“I’m glad we were able to get a guy that we’re convicted on and we like. So yeah, it’s gratifying. I’ll probably on the ride home be able to decompress, but it was pretty stressful up there the last 15, 20 minutes trying to get this done.”
Why Dart? Why this quarterback? It has to be more than the fact that he shares an alma mater and a connection with Eli Manning. right?
“I think he’s got a lot of qualities you look for in a good quarterback,” Daboll said. “He’s tough, makes good decisions with the football, pushes the ball down the field, has athletic ability, played in a really tough conference, started there at USC as a young guy. But did a really good job throughout this process of our meetings, board work, workouts and the tape that we liked.
“I like the way he plays. I like his competitive fire. I like his accuracy. I like his ability, again, to push the ball down the field. His athletic ability to run with the football. I think this guy has gotten better every year he’s played. He’s a leader. He was smart. He has the attributes that we were looking for. Excited to have him. Look forward to getting him in the room. He’s got a lot to learn.”
More ‘things I think’
- It is pretty amazing that Sanders is still on the board entering Day 2 of the draft. It was pretty hilarious watching ESPN’s Mel Kiper seem to get angrier and angrier about that as the night went along.
- I was happy to see that the Giants are picking up Kayvon Thibodeaux’s fifth-year option, making it unlikely that Thibodeaux will be traded. GM Joe Schoen, in fact, said “Kayvon’s going to be here.”
- Dart is not a milquetoast Daniel Jones clone. Asked during a hastily-arranged conference if he thought his personality fit New York he practically screamed “NO DOUBT” into the phone.
