Closely connected to Jeremiyah Love and Caleb Downs at No. 5 overall, the Giants are launching a new regime centered around John Harbaugh. Coming off a 3-14 season and not entering free agency as one of the most cap-rich teams, the Giants still have holes to fill.
New York also does not hold a third-round pick, trading it to the Texans in the deal that gave New York Jaxson Dart access last year. The Giants are (again) in prime position to snare one of the top talents in a draft class. This is certainly not atypical, as the Giants have walked out of recent drafts with Abdul Carter, Malik Nabers, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Andrew Thomas and Saquon Barkley. They also made two more top-10 picks in this span, selecting Daniel Jones and Evan Neal. This brigade of high-level prospects has not mattered much for Big Blue in the grand scheme.
Harbaugh represents the latest organizational pivot, as the team hopes an experienced leader can help put pieces together in a way the recent run of less seasoned coaches could not. The Giants could land yet another upper-crust prospect, but ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan notes a belief exists the team would prefer to trade down a few spots to accumulate more draft capital.
The Giants hold Nos. 5 and 37 but do not pick again until No. 105. While they have been tied to Love, Downs, Sonny Styles and Carnell Tate, Raanan adds cornerback is a position where the team is doing homework. LSU’s Mansoor Delane visited the Giants on Thursday, and they are digging into Tennessee’s Jermod McCoy as well. McCoy missed all of last season with an ACL tear but has rehabbed to the point he will be ready to go as a rookie. McCoy clocked a 4.38-second 40-yard dash time at the Volunteers’ pro day and is expected to be drafted by the middle of Round 1 at the latest.
Neither player profiles as one requiring an investment at No. 5, however, and the Giants could be angling to find teams interested in climbing up for a prospect in an effort to recoup a Day 2 pick or two. We are, of course, in prime smokescreen season. The Giants are obviously far from certain to move down and pass on one of this draft’s top prospects, and the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy adds Love and Downs (in that order) may be the top players in the team’s draft queue. We heard Giants-Love connections earlier, with Downs and Styles also drawing extensive attention from the team — as Harbaugh’s former club valued the safety position highly.
New York gave Paulson Adebo a three-year, $54MM deal in free agency last year and signed Greg Newsome to a one-year, $8MM pact last month. Newsome profiles as more of a stopgap than a Cordale Flott successor, and the Giants look to have missed on 2023 first-rounder Deonte Banks. Adebo being brought in before Harbaugh’s staff arrived also probably affects the team’s CB interest in this draft.
The Giants also might not find too many teams with appetites to surrender assets and move up. With no quarterback beyond Fernando Mendoza compelling teams to consider big-ticket trade-up offers and the likes of Love, Styles and Downs at non-premium positions, there might be a shortage of trade action early. The teams that follow the Raiders in the top five — the Jets, Cardinals, Titans and Giants — are believed to be interested in moving down to add assets, SI.com’s Albert Breer said in an interview with The Ringer’s Todd McShay, but trade partners are not plentiful right now.
Drafting Love, Styles or Downs this high do not bring the type of contractual advantage identifying a top-shelf pass rusher, wide receiver or tackle — positions usually populating this draft space — would provide. And trading assets to acquire one of these players compounds this issue, potentially creating a scenario in which we do not see much trade action early. Breer adds the trade movement in this year’s draft may begin around No. 10.
It is obviously not a lock the draft will play out this way, and veteran insider Jordan Schultz has been told this could be a trade-heavy draft. Schultz points to a potential “flurry” of activity in the first half of Round 1, citing sources informing him of modest depth in the later rounds. While it is true the present college landscape keeping players in school longer has depleted draft classes — with mid-20-somethings populating the later rounds and UDFA classes — others have spoken of this class’ depth at certain positions.
It will be interesting to hear if more trade chatter picks up over the next two weeks. That is generally the case, and even without a quarterback driving action (as Drake Maye did with the Giants and Vikings in 2024), trade buzz promises to pick up in the coming days.
Buccaneers should be all over this Jeremiyah Love all the way
He’s gonna be gone by 5. Titans are gonna select him it seems to me
That is the word on the Street, but I don’t see a Defensive Player making a difference, but Love the RB would for the Bucs!
Every year the same crap. There will be trades, there won’t be trades. If you write enough crap at least something will come true and then hope people forget you were wrong 90% of the time. These football journalists are the worst because there is so much time to fill and nothing really happens interesting for months. Sad.
The worst is Cowherd who flip flops, grabs the popular theme of the week, and while good at his job and successful has zero experience or knowledge of the nfl. Access to Sean Peyton doesn’t count as experience.
Who’s trading up? Maybe Miami, 7 picks in the first 3 rounds