Big Blue View
Can the Giants find a franchise quarterback in the 2025 draft?
The New York Giants are, finally, on their bye week. This is the time of the year when we can all take a breath and collect ourselves before the stretch run to the playoffs.
For the Giants, the playoffs are only a mathematical possibility at this point and extremely unlikely in any rational universe. So we once again find ourselves turning to the NFL Draft before Thanksgiving, though this time it's with the feeling that we could be in for a true course change for the Giants. Making things more interesting -- and possibly setting the stage for a fast turnaround in 2025 -- is the fact that the Giants' roster isn't far off from the top teams in the NFC. They can play with anyone, and may only be a couple pieces and a bit of development from contending.
The Giants currently hold the second overall pick following their Week 10 loss to the Carolina Panthers. So with that in mind, I ran a four-round mock draft to try and address the Giants' needs and set them up for future success.
The Jaguars picked Missouri wide receiver Luthor Burden (the top player on PFN’s board) in almost every mock I ran. That left Cam Ward for me, and it was a pretty easy decision to take him.
Ward has solid size, good pocket presence and short-area quickness, great field vision, and one of the most elastic arms I've ever seen. He might not have truly ELITE arm strength, but he can challenge all areas of the field and do so from off-platform and out of structure.
Ward is pretty solidly my QB1, but he isn’t without risk. Ward’s willingness to go big play hunting, and his ability to do so successfully, is an undeniable asset to his game and one of the things that will make him attractive to the Giants. But they’ll need to strike a balance in his development between aggressively attacking and taking what the defense gives him.
I did consider a small trade back here, on the supposition that the Giants could fall in love with Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. If I was able to trade back within the Top 5, odds are that one of Ward or Milroe would still have been available. In one mock I ran, the Raiders offered me their entire draft plus their 2026 second-round pick to move up to No. 2 overall when the Jaguars passed on Burden. That was fun, but not realistic, so I didn't use the results for this piece.
As I said in a recent College Football Primer, the Giants need to find an answer next to Dexter Lawrence. Dex may be the best defensive tackle in...
