NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
The New York Giants went from having an all-but-empty QB room to a full roster of quarterbacks. That’s not to say that they won’t draft one in this year’s NFL Draft, but the chances of them doing it in the first round are slightly slimmer. After signing both Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston and bringing back Tommy DeVito, the Giants should look to fill other needs via their first-round pick. That said, should the Giants look to trade down from their third pick overall?
If there’s anyone who knows how tricky trading around in the first round on draft day can be, it’s Giants GM Joe Shoen. Last off-season, Shoen did all he could to try and move up on day one with the hopes of drafting a quarterback, but everyone stayed put. However, it’s a different story if you’re the team looking to move up. Teams in desperate need might not want to make those moves and potentially miss out on their player. They hold all the cards. You have to be the one making the offer. When you’re moving down, teams have to meet your asking price, or you stay put.
The problem with the Giants moving out of the 3 spot is that there are not too many teams behind them, outside of maybe the New York Jets, who need to move up for a QB. That is to say, none of them will be aggressive enough to move up for a quarterback and give up a haul of picks. Not to mention what position they would select should they decide to trade down. If they’re thinking offensive line, picks 4 through 16 could also be looking at linemen. If they trying to get the top running back Ashton Jeanty, who wouldn’t last past pick 12 with the Dallas Cowboys, but could easily go as high as fifth to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a running back drafted that high on day one. However, last year’s Super Bowl champion, the Philadelphia Eagles, proved exactly how important the running back position still is. Out of last year’s playoff teams, seven teams had running backs in the top 10. For a league that’s tipped the scales on passing, 2024 had to be an eye-opener for the need at the running back position.
Then, of course, there’s their current draft situation. As it stands right now, the New York Giants have eight picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Stockpiling picks is great for a team looking to rebuild and strengthen up; however, at some point, you reach the point of minimal return. Once you get into deeper rounds, you’d be reaching for a diamond in the rough, but you’d also roster on a large batch of cut candidates. How many of the players drafted would be that far off from the UDFAs that could be signed post-draft?
At some point, having an embarrassment of riches would only allow them to move around the middle rounds to move up for other players. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but again, there’d be a good chance they’d miss out on their top day 1 pick to do so.
And who knows? Maybe the New York Giants’ plan all along was to stockpile quarterbacks until one of them eventually made the team better. Whether they plan on drafting a quarterback or not, the obvious choice is to stand firm at pick number three and get exactly the player they’ve wanted all along.
