How 2025 Draft Class' Strengths Match Up to Giants' Emerging Needs

Check out what positions the Giants are in need of and how that aligns with the 2025 Draft stock.

Victoria Jonach | Nov 12, 2024

Apr 25, 2025; Detroit, MI, USA; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell brings up local music artist Eminem and some Detroit Lions players on the main theater stage on Thursday, April 25, 2024 for the first day of the NFL Draft in Detroit. / Detroit Free Press-Imagn Images

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New York Giants

With the New York Giants season all but over as far as any chance of a miraculous comeback is concerned, fans have already begun looking at the 2025 draft as a potential savior for filling so many of the holes that exist on this roster.

The Giants have plenty of needs, such as quarterback, cornerback, interior defensive line, and offensive line, just to name a few. Although the draft class for 2025 hasn’t fully taken shape, Pro Football Focus has an early look at the class's strengths, which we’re comparing to the Giants’ emerging needs.

Quarterback

The Daniel Jones era is all but certain to be over following another lackluster showing, a 20-17 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. Jones, who per The 33rd Team, has the longest active streak of games (57) with less than three passing touchdowns based on a minimum of five attempts, is likely headed to the bench, eliminating any worry about his $23 million injury guarantee.

Unlike the 2024 quarterback-rich class, the 2025 class is missing the wide variety of signal callers to pick from who might be worthy of a first-round grade.

Miami’s Cam Ward has steadily risen many draft boards thanks to his impressive performance and record. Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are also among the class's most talented quarterbacks.

Beyond those, there is debate about who else fills out this class that might be Day 1 worthy. And if that’s the case, then that’s not good news for a quarterback-needy team like the Giants, who might just have to roll with a veteran “bridge” until they can get their next franchise quarterback, especially if they don’t get a premium draft spot.

Interior Defensive Line

Aside from Dexter Lawrence, the Giants lack impact players on their defensive front, where they’ve struggled to get consistent production out of veterans Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Armon Watts and youngsters D.J. Davidson and Elijah Chatman.

Luckily for the Giants, the interior defender stock is looking great. Michigan leads the charge with both Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant. Tennessee’s Omar Norman-Lott and Ohio State’s Tyleik Williams are also standouts who could hear their names called early.

Offensive Line

According to The 33rd Team, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is tied with Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud for having been hit the most through 10 weeks of play (before Monday Night Football).

While some of that is on Jones–Pro Football Focus has Jones responsible for 17.2% of the pressures he’s faced this season–the offensive line is also largely at fault.

The Giants didn’t draft any offensive linemen last year, a rather curious decision given the unit was coming off a historically bad performance the year prior in which it allowed 85 sacks.

Moving forward, Giants general manager Joe Schoen cannot allow this to happen again. He doesn’t necessarily have to keep drafting starters, but it is imperative that they bring in young talent who can be developed so that if an injury occurs, they have someone waiting in the wings to step in.

If they have their eye on an offensive tackle, Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. and LSU’s Will Campbell have proved their worth.

Cornerback

Last week, the Giants cornerback Nick McCloud after he declined a pay cut to his one-year, $3 million restricted free-agent deal.

The move came as a surprise because the Giants were already thin at this position. But they needed the money to get through the rest of the year, and now they have to hope that they don’t have any injuries that cause them to really be hurting for depth.

That aside, with Deonte Banks going through a bad sophomore slump and Cor’Dale Flott not exactly setting the world on fire, the Giants are all but certain to add to this position group, something they wanted to do last year, in fact, only to miss out on their top two college prospects.

Luckily for them, this year, the cornerbacks class is considered to be “great,” with Colorado’s Travis Hunter, Michigan’s Will Johnson, and Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison leading the rankings.

Wide Receiver

The odds of Darius Slayton, who will be an unrestricted free agent next year, returning aren’t very good, not after Slayton sought a contract extension this past spring only to receive a modified, incentive-based contract adjustment instead.

While the hope is that Jalin Hyatt is finally ready for a bigger role – he caught four out of four pass targets for 39 yards this past weekend in place of Slayton, who was inactive due to a concussion–the Giants might want to add to their receiver corps, selecting from a class that while solid, doesn’t appear to measure up to this past year’s class.

That said, like any other position group, there are gems to be found, such as Colorado dual threat Travis Hunter, Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, and Mizzou’s Luther Burden III.