Saints Exploring Versatility Of No. 9 Pick Kelvin Banks Jr.
The Saints are planning to play No. 9 pick Kelvin Banks Jr. at multiple offensive line positions this summer as the team’s coaching staff determines his best fit in the NFL.
Banks played exclusively left tackle for the last six years (three in high school, three at Texas) with zero snaps at any other spot in college. He has the requisite height, weight, and athleticism to stay at tackle, though his 33.5-inch arms barely meet NFL standards for the position. Banks’ ultimate role in New Orleans will be based on his ability to add positional versatility as well as the Saints’ needs along their offensive line.
Head coach Kellen Moore indicated that Banks would spent time at multiple spots this summer with the goal of finding the team’s best five-man OL combination, according to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football.
During rookie minicamp, Banks lined up at left and right tackle, as well as left guard, per Underhill. He could contribute at any of the three spots for the Saints as a rookie after the team started several different O-line combinations last season. 2024 first-rounder Taliese Fuaga started all 17 games at left tackle with Trevor Penning replacing an injured Ryan Ramczyk on the right side. Ramczyk retired in April and Penning is in the last season of his contract, so the Saints may be looking to identify a long-term pair of tackles this season.
Since all of Fuaga’s college starts came at right tackle, the Saints could look to move Fuaga back to his natural position and allow Banks to remain at left tackle. If New Orleans is more comfortable keeping Fuaga on the blind side, Banks could then flip to the right tackle, though such transitions can be challenging. (The Chargers successfully moved 2024 first-rounder Joe Alt from left to right tackle as a rookie.)
If the Saints want to stick with last year’s tackle combination, Banks could be a candidate to take over at left guard, where the team started multiple players amid a rash of interior O-line injuries. They have a host of options this year as well. Nick Saldiveri started six games in 2024, while Landon Young played multiple games at both guard spots. New Orleans also signed Dillon Radunz this offseason. The former second-round pick started at right guard for the Titans in 2024 but has NFL experience at every offensive line position except center.
49ers, Brock Purdy Agree To Extension
MAY 18: Purdy’s extension with the 49ers also includes a full no-trade clause for the duration of the contract, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. That has become standard practice for major quarterback extensions, though it remains unclear if Purdy received a clause preventing San Francisco from applying the franchise tag on him at the end of the deal.
MAY 17: While a rolling guarantee structure will help protect Purdy down the line, he still is believed to have received a nine-figure guarantee at signing. The 49ers are giving their franchise QB $100MM locked in up front, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco reports. Purdy becomes the 12th active QB to secure a $100MM full guarantee.
Passers earning less per year (from Deshaun Watson to Lamar Jackson to Justin Herbert to Kyler Murray) secured more at signing, though it will be interesting to learn how the 49ers have structured Purdy’s rolling guarantees. The seventh-round success story, who secured all of $77K when he signed his rookie deal, should see more guarantees vest a year out moving forward.
MAY 16: Brock Purdy will not need to wait until training camp to ink his extension. The 49ers’ starting quarterback agreed to a deal Friday, Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network report. 
This will be a five-year, $265MM pact, Purdy’s agent informed the NFLN trio. The league’s latest monster QB deal includes $181MM in total guarantees; that figure consists of $165.05MM covering the next three seasons. Purdy is now on the books through 2030. The $181MM amount represents the injury guarantee, and Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer notes it contains a rolling structure.
San Francisco has long known a mega-pact was coming in this case. Whereas many of the team’s big-ticket extensions have dragged into the summer during recent years, that will not be the case with respect to Purdy. The former ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ has handled starting duties since midway through his rookie campaign, and that will remain the case – as the team hoped – for many years to come.
Purdy was due to collect a base salary of $5.35MM in 2025, the final year of his rookie pact. A massive raise was known to be in store, and negotiations began not long after the end of the season. Progress was made in relatively short order, and general manager John Lynch targeted voluntary offseason workouts as a timeline for an agreement to be in place. Indeed, prior to the start of San Francisco’s OTAs, the team’s most impactful piece of business has been taken care of. The fact Purdy was present for the beginning of voluntary work last month represented a clear sign this agreement was close.
This deal’s AAV of $53MM moves Purdy into a tie for seventh amongst quarterbacks in terms of annual earnings. The 25-year-old is on level terms with Jared Goff and narrowly behind Tua Tagovailoa in that respect; both of their deals were signed last offseason. In all, 11 signal-callers are now attached to a pact averaging at least $51MM per year.
Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo going down with season-ending injuries in 2022 opened the door for Purdy to take over as the team’s starter. The Iowa State product helped lead San Francisco to the NFC title game that year and to the Super Bowl during the following campaign. Despite making a clear error by trading up to the No. 3 slot in 2021 to draft Lance, the 49ers have thus received stable QB play (and at a fraction of the cost of veteran passers, of course). That will no longer be the case moving forward, but expectations will remain high for the team’s offense.
Throughout his tenure in the Bay Area, Purdy has enjoyed the benefits of San Francisco’s left tackle and skill-position investments. Wideout Deebo Samuel was traded earlier this offseason, but Trent Williams, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle – himself the recipient of a recent extension – remain in the fold. Purdy saw his league-leading yards per attempt average (9.6) drop to 8.5 from 2023 to ’24, but a rebound could be in store provided the team can avoid the injury issues of last year.
While much of San Francisco’s offensive core has remained intact this spring, the team’s defense has undergone a number of changes. The need to budget for this Purdy extension represented a key reason for that, but in general a number of new faces will be counted on to contribute right away at important positions. The 49ers made 11 selections during last year’s draft and in doing so added necessary cost-effective options to compensate for the surge in operating cost under center.
Questions linger about how much longer the 49ers’ current core (which still includes All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner, likely the team’s next extension priority) will remain intact and thus whether or not San Francisco’s Super Bowl window is closing. The extent to which a return to contention will take place in 2025 but also well beyond that point will be driven in large part by Purdy’s ability to deliver on expectations while playing out this deal.
Buccaneers Rookie CB Benjamin Morrison Expected To Be Ready For Training Camp
Buccaneers rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison is expected to be ready for training camp after missing most of the 2024 season due to a hip injury.
Morrison underwent surgery last October after sustaining a hip labral tear, sidelining him for much of the pre-draft process. He didn’t participate in the Combine or Notre Dame’s pro day but worked out for scouts the week of the draft to showcase his rehab progress. That workout gave the Bucs enough confidence to select Morrison with the 53rd overall pick.
General manager Jason Licht said that Morrison “probably” could participate in OTAs, per senior team writer Scott Smith, but noted that Morrison suffered a similar injury to his other hip in high school.
“He’s going to be ready by training camp,” continued Licht. “From what we understand, once it’s repaired and you’ve proven you can play on it you’re good to go, it’s almost as healthy as it can be.”
A cautious approach for Morrison makes sense given his injury history. In addition to the two hip labral tears, he underwent shoulder surgery in March 2024 that sidelined him for most of spring practices, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler.
“We have a process here, just like every other team,” Licht said (via Smith). “At the end of the day, we’re not going to take a player that our medical team felt uncomfortable with.”
Tampa Bay entered the draft with only one starting cornerback signed past the 2025 season. The team addressed that need by drafting both Morrison and Kansas State’s Jacob Parrish on Day 2, providing potential long-term options on the boundary and in the slot. Morrison’s tape across his three years at Notre Dame suggest that he could start right away in the NFL, though he would obviously need to be healthy to do so. If his recovery continues on its current trajectory, he should be in a position to compete for a starting role in the Buccaneers’ defense this summer.
NFC Staff Updates: Giants, Falcons, Vikings, Rams, Eagles
As is common in the wake of the 2025 NFL Draft, several teams have been making updates to their front offices. One of the latest such clubs to do so is the Giants, who made a number of changes to their scouting staff recently.
According to Dan Duggan of The Athletic, the Giants and national scout Mike Derice have parted ways. Derice had been in the role for three years, joining the team shortly after the 2022 draft. The change comes as a bit of surprise with so much positive reception to the team’s last two drafts.
A new face will join the scouting department, though, as Jordan Raanan of ESPN reports that the team has hired Tyson Beane as a scouting assistant. Tyson Beane is the son of Bills general manager Brandon Beane. With Giants general manager Joe Schoen having served five years in Buffalo as Beane’s assistant general manager, it makes sense for Tyson to land in New York, if not Buffalo.
Per Raanan, the Giants also lost a member of their coaching staff, as well. Offensive assistant Angela Baker has reportedly left the organization in order to pursue opportunities elsewhere in the NFL. Baker had worked with the team since 2022.
Here are a few other staff updates from around the NFC:
- The Falcons also made a pair of changes, per Neil Stratton of SucceedinFootball.com. Stratton noted a change in the LinkedIn account of Andy Grossman, showing a promotion from football data analyst to senior football data analyst. After working on staff at Northwestern, Grossman joined Atlanta back in 2022.
- On the scouting side of things, Stratton adds the Falcons are saying goodbye to national scout Joel Collier, who has been with the team since 2016. After starting as a graduate assistant at Syracuse from 1988-89, Collier served as an NFL assistant coach from 1990-2007, working with the Buccaneers, Patriots, and Dolphins and taking one year in 1993 to work as a pro scout for the Patriots. His NFL coaching career came to an end when he was hired as assistant general manager of the Chiefs, a role he held for six years. He arrived in Atlanta as director of pro personnel in 2016 before being reassigned to national scout in 2019.
- Stratton also informs us that another NFL staffer with 30-plus years of experience has parted ways with their most recent employer. The Vikings have reportedly parted ways with personnel scout Frank Acevedo. Acevedo has been in Minnesota for the last 23 years after starting his NFL career with seven seasons in Kansas City. He will explore other options in 2025.
- The Rams also announced a number of updates to their scouting staff, per Stratton. Two scouting apprentices earned promotions as Cory Moore was named an area scout and Michael Young was named a pro scout. Roman Cooper was also hired to serve as senior scouting assistant.
- Lastly, the Eagles have hired Smit Bajaj to serve as a quantitative analyst for the team. Bajaj was recently part of the winning team in this year’s NFL Big Data Bowl competition, helping him to earn this opportunity. Seth Walder of ESPN tells us that Bajaj will start in July.
AFC West Notes: OL, Chargers, Chiefs, Carroll, Broncos
Bradley Bozeman has been a starting center in the NFL for most of the past four seasons. He has never graded out as one of the NFL’s best centers, though, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), so the Chargers are starting to experiment with lining former first-round pick Zion Johnson up at center in 2025, per Daniel Popper of The Athletic, bumping Bozeman out to left guard.
Starting as a backup center with the Ravens in 2018, Bozeman was bumped out to left guard so that he could be in the starting lineup in his sophomore season with the team. In the final year of his rookie contract, Baltimore moved Bozeman back to center. As a free agent he signed a one-year deal as a backup to Pat Elflein in Carolina, earning the starting gig when Elflein went out with a season-ending injury. After he stepped up, Carolina extended him to a three-year, $18MM extension but released him just a year later. He rebounded by signing with the Chargers, who, like the Panthers, gave him an extension after his first year with the team.
Johnson has yet to live up to his first-round status in Los Angeles; the Chargers declined his fifth-year option this month. He took over as a starter immediately as a rookie but has been only average at left guard. While it may not result in a permanent switch, it makes sense for the Chargers to at least try swapping Johnson and Bozeman. Neither has been outstanding at their initial positions, and working in a new spot may help one or both players be more comfortable moving forward. With Mekhi Becton improving the right guard spot as he joins a pretty great tackle pair in Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, the Chargers will hope that the swap results in an upgrade to their two weaker offensive line positions.
Here are a few more offseason rumors from around the AFC West:
- In a slightly similar situation, the Raiders will be cross-training rookie tackle Charles Grant in hopes that he can serve as the team’s swing tackle, according to Tashan Reed of The Athletic. Las Vegas used back-to-back picks on offensive tackles in the third round back in April, selecting Grant right after drafting Texas Tech’s Caleb Rogers. Rogers may end up getting more looks on the interior as a pro, while the Raiders plan on Grant being an option to play at both tackle spots. Grant spent all five years of his time at William & Mary as a left tackle, but with Kolton Miller entrenched in that starting spot, Grant’s best path to playing time is to compete with second-year right tackle DJ Glaze. It’s not easy to switch from side to side at tackle in the NFL, so Vegas will experiment with Grant at both spots to be safe. They’ll see how well he takes on the shift to the right side in order to determine if he can compete with Glaze, but if he can’t make the change, they’ll keep him working at left tackle, as well, as an option to backup Miller.
- While Chiefs rookie offensive tackle Josh Simmons‘ slide to the last pick of the first round was credited in large part to medical red flags, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler informs us that “character concerns” were a bigger deterrent during the pre-draft process. Fowler asserts that most teams he consulted with were not overly concerned with the patellar tendon tear that ended Simmons’ 2024 campaign. Instead, concerns with his approach to practices and run blocking gave pause to teams with mid- to late-first-round picks.
- In a recent Q&A, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal fielded a question about whether or not the eventual replacement for Raiders head coach Pete Carroll was already in the building. Carroll is currently on a three-year deal with a fourth-year team option, but if the 73-year-old skipper opted to hang up his headset after putting the team on the right track, Bonsignore does have an eye on a potential successor in the building. Carroll’s two sons are both currently on staff with him in Las Vegas; Brennan Carroll works as the team’s offensive line coach, while Nate Carroll serves as assistant quarterbacks coach. According to Bonsignore, the elder brother, Brennan, is an up-and-coming coach with experience as an offensive coordinator with two programs at the collegiate level. If the eldest Carroll boy is going to get an NFL head coaching opportunity, the cleanest path likely lies in Vegas.
- As linebacker Alex Singleton continues striving to make his return from a midseason ACL tear, the Broncos have just been aiming to get him back in time for their 2025 season opener. In an update from Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post, it was reported that Singleton is on track to return in time for training camp. The former undrafted free agent has been increasingly impressive as he’s earned more and more responsibility during stints with the Eagles and Broncos. Even with the first major injury of his career, the 31-year-old continues to surpass expectations with a quick and smooth rehabilitation process.
NFC East Rumors: Cowboys, Eagles, Strahan
The Athletic beat writer Charlotte Carroll was astute to notice that someone other than head coach Brian Daboll was calling plays at Giants minicamp recently. This report was confirmed when SportsNet New York’s Connor Hughes saw assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka calling plays for the second day in a row.
While this may suggest some uncertainty about who will be calling the offense for New York in 2025, Paul Schwartz of the New York Post was quick to report that a change isn’t likely at this time. Kafka was originally given play-calling duties for the first time in his career during Daboll’s first year as the head coach. Daboll had wanted his focus to be more big-picture and had assigned the responsibility to Kafka. Just before the 2024 season, though, Daboll took over play-calling duties for the whole year.
A time may come in which Kafka gets another opportunity to call plays in the NFL, but for now, his lack of experience in comparison to Daboll’s is likely to keep the responsibility with the head coach in 2025.
Here are a few more rumors from around the NFC East:
- After missing his entire rookie season with a torn ACL in the preseason, Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown had a productive debut season in 2024. In 13 games, Overshown started 12 contests and stuffed the stat sheet in the process. He tallied 90 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, five sacks, five quarterback hits, four passes defensed, an interception returned for a touchdown, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. Unfortunately, that production came to a screeching halt when he suffered late-season tears to his ACL, MCL, and PCL. Overshown is making sure not to rush anything in his recovery, telling RJ Ochoa of SB Nation that, while he hasn’t ruled out starting in Week 1, he knows he’ll probably be starting the season on the physically unable to perform list. Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram adds that November has been identified as a realistic target for Overshown’s return.
- Ben VanSumeren is entering his third season with the Eagles. While he has made two starts in his career, his main impact has come on special teams. Even more interesting, VanSumeren’s rookie-year start was on defense at linebacker, but his second-year start was on offense as a fullback. In fact, all of his non-special teams snaps were on defense as a rookie and on offense in his sophomore campaign. According to Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer, head coach Nick Sirianni disclosed that, after re-signing VanSumeren, the third-year player has been officially labeled a fullback. While the team intends to cross-train him in both rooms, he will begin in the running backs room in 2025.
- Lastly, it was recently reported that Eli Manning is not the only former Giant looking to acquire an ownership stake in the franchise. According to Schwartz, Hall of Fame pass rusher Michael Strahan will compete with Manning in an attempt to buy up to a 10 percent ownership stake in the Giants. Strahan is pairing with billionaire Marc Lasry to put together their bid.
Buccaneers Make Changes In Front Office
The immediate few weeks following the NFL draft is usually an active time for staffing changes in the front offices of NFL organizations. The Buccaneers are the latest example of this as they announced some promotions and departures earlier this week.
The team already announced a new assistant general manager and director of football research in the days after the draft. The biggest changes we saw more recently involved the promotions of Mike Biehl, Shane Scannell, Tony Hardie, and Shelton Quarles.
Biehl was elevated from director to vice president of player personnel. He has been with Tampa Bay for 11 years after a 13-year stint in San Diego and three years with the Bills before that. Biehl has been a key figure in the team’s draft process for a decade now and will direct both of the college and pro personnel departments in his new role.
Scannell was promoted from director of pro scouting to director of player personnel. He started out as a scouting assistant in 2015, spent five years as a pro scout, two as assistant director of pro scouting, and two as director. Hardie has been with the Bucs for 14 years, starting as a combine scout for NFS and covering several different areas of the country for the team and company. He eventually became an area scout and a national scout before being promoted to his current role. Quarles joined the team’s front office after a decade of service as a linebacker for the team, eventually ascending up the pro scouting department to director. His focus has shifted a bit more to the ops side of things as he’s been named senior director of football operations.
The Bucs also promoted Jeremiah Bogan and Korey Finnie to college scouts. Finnie had been serving in Hardie’s old combine/NFS scout job before the promotion, while Bogan had been a scouting assistant. To cover the NFS scout role, another scouting assistant, Jordan Morrow, has also been promoted.
Lastly, while one national scout, Hardie, was given a promotion, another national scout departed. According to Neil Stratton of SucceedinFootball.com, Antwon Murray has made the decision to part ways with the team. Murray had been with Tampa Bay for nine years and will seek new opportunities in scouting.
Colts DE Samson Ebukam Expects To Be Cleared For Training Camp
Colts DE Samson Ebukam is entering a contract year, and fortunately for player and team, it appears he will be on the field when training camp begins in July. Per Mike Chappell of Fox 59, Ebukam expects to be medically cleared in time for camp.
Ebukam paced the Colts with 9.5 sacks in 2023, a performance that led to high expectations in 2024. Unfortunately, the former fourth-round pick of the Rams suffered a torn Achilles shortly after last year’s training camp got underway. While Indianapolis placed him on IR with a return designation in the hopes that he could suit up more quickly than expected, that did not materialize, and Ebukam ultimately missed the entire campaign.
His absence is one of the reasons why the Colts, after posting the fifth-most sacks in the league in 2023, finished with the seventh-fewest in 2024. Even with Ebukam in the fold, Indy’s defense was not a particularly stout unit in 2023, but his return, coupled with a shift in organizational philosophy that led to notable deals for Camryn Bynum and Charvarius Ward that are intended to address the club’s secondary woes, should beget an improvement in 2025.
While GM Chris Ballard finally landed a top tight end prospect in the first round of last month’s draft when he turned in the card for Penn State standout Tyler Warren, he continued to fortify the defensive side of the ball on Day 2, when he added Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau and Minnesota cornerback Justin Walley. The team did lose Dayo Odeyingbo in free agency but still rosters DeForest Buckner and recent first-round draftees Kwity Paye and Laiatu Latu along the defensive front.
Like Ebukam, Paye is going into a platform season. The Michigan product, who has recorded 16.5 sacks over the past two years, is due to earn $13.39MM on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal and can take advantage of the booming pass rusher market if he can replicate or improve upon his recent performances.
Ebukam is entering his age-30 season and could therefore face a more limited market next March even if he has a healthy and productive season. Nonetheless, he should still have a number of suitors and a sizable new deal if he can match his 2023 production.
Draft Lottery Not On NFL’s Radar
This week’s NBA lottery produced a Mavericks win despite the much-scrutinized franchise entering the annual event with less than a 2% chance to secure the No. 1 pick. Long-shot lottery wins have become a regular NBA occurrence, as teams with the worst records have seen their odds to land the top choice decrease thanks to a recent change in the lottery system.
In an attempt to curb tanking, the NBA reduced the odds of the team holding the worst record to 14%. The franchises who finish with a bottom-three record each carry a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick entering the lottery; prior to 2019, the team that finished with the league’s worst record carried a 25% chance at the pick. Although NBA lotteries stretching back decades — from the Patrick Ewing- and LeBron James-centered events — have generated intrigue, the 2019 change has increased drama.
Major League Baseball also now uses a lottery system, waiting until 2022 to implement one, and the NHL also uses this setup to determine its draft order. The Mavs’ recent triumph, however, brought some chatter about the NFL following suit. While this topic has come up within the media, it has never exactly been a front-burner matter in league circles.
The NFL has done plenty to increase viewership in recent years, adding extra playoff teams (and moving a wild-card game to Monday night) while making Christmas Day games an annual event and raising its count of international games. A future in which the league plays 16 international games per season has come up, as an 18-game season appears a near-future inevitability. The league also expanded its draft from two days to three back in 2010, and that change — which offered two primetime windows — has benefited the league. A lottery would certainly garner more interest ahead of that event, but as of now, there does not seem much appetite for big-picture change.
No vote about a lottery has taken place in the league previously, and ESPN’s Dan Graziano said during a recent Get Up appearance (h/t Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiari) it is not believed the competition committee has engaged in substantive discussions about such a change. The league, per Graziano, does not believe it has a tanking problem that would warrant a lottery.
Teams maneuvering to land a higher draft slot, of course, has taken place. And recent drafts have shown the value that can come from securing a top pick. The Bears sat Justin Fields in Week 18 of the 2022 season, giving them the No. 1 draft slot — which it traded to the Panthers in a swap that eventually brought Caleb Williams to Chicago — while the Commanders benefited from losing their final eight games in 2023. Washington reduced its chances of winning by trading both Montez Sweat and Chase Young at the 2023 deadline; ownership overruled the Ron Rivera regime on Sweat. This led to Jayden Daniels draft access, which has triggered a sea change in Washington. The Bengals saw the same trajectory shift when they obtained the Joe Burrow draft slot in 2020, outflanking a Dolphins team that became the subject of a tanking investigation.
The Eagles also were not exactly focused on winning when they played a memorable season finale in Washington in 2020, yanking future Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld from a winnable game — one that would have given the Giants the NFC East title in that event. This only netted Philly the No. 6 overall draft slot, but the team acquired a future first-round pick — via the Dolphins’ climb for Jaylen Waddle in 2021 — months after its seminal loss in Washington.
A lottery would protect against teams having clear motivation to lose late-season games, as earning access to certain QB prospects in the draft continues to matter significantly. But with the NFL’s game count at 17 (compared to the 82- and 162-game slates the other sports use), tanking efforts are not nearly as substantial. Coaching staffs not receiving long runways also play into this. So does the trade deadline’s placement. It took until 2024 for the league to even move the deadline until the Tuesday following Week 9. It had stood a week earlier for 12 years, and the NFL had it stationed two weeks earlier in the years prior.
The league’s resistance to change on that front also was aimed at competitive integrity, as it sought to prevent a slew of sellers emerging in a reality in which the deadline landed in the season’s second half — as it does in the NBA, NHL and MLB — rather than midseason. This aim likely is leading to lottery hesitation as well, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer indicates a potential concern would be mediocre teams not putting forth best efforts in a push to better their respective lottery positions. The league would surely prefer to avoid more sequences reminding of the Hurts-for-Sudfeld sequence.
This talk of ensuring the status quo comes as the NFL is set to discuss rearranging its playoff field, a move that would be aimed at keeping teams from resting starters to close out seasons. A lottery would at least minimize scenarios in which clubs have the chance to secure the No. 1 pick by losing late-season games. A league that has not been shy about methods of increasing viewership likely will visit this change down the road, but for now, it appears the long-held draft structure will remain for the foreseeable future.
Giants’ Draft Plan Turned Off Some Veteran QB Targets
The Giants now have their quarterback room assembled, adding Jameis Winston, Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart to join Tommy DeVito. This is the first room assembled by the current regime, which inherited Daniel Jones and stuck with the Dave Gettleman draftee for three years.
A Winston-Wilson pairing to join Dart did not check in as the Giants’ preference, as the team aggressively pursued Matthew Stafford and extended an offer to Aaron Rodgers. Stafford regrouped with the Rams, spurning Giants and Raiders proposals, while Rodgers’ Vikings preference became clear. The Giants may well have sat third in Rodgers’ rankings, as he met with the Steelers on a visit four days before the Giants agreed to terms with Wilson.
Rodgers held a private discussions with Brian Daboll, according to ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan, who adds some of the available quarterbacks were not onboard with joining a Giants team viewed as one that could then use a high draft choice on the position. Based on how the Steelers proceeded in the draft, Rodgers could certainly be assumed as a player who fits that description. While the increasingly outspoken QB said during a Pat McAfee Show offseason interview he would not object to a team doing what it needed to do in the draft, Pittsburgh not choosing a passer until Round 6 (Will Howard) proves telling.
The Giants made their move much earlier, trading up for Jaxson Dart without using a future first- or second-round pick to do so. New York, which could not convince New England to accept its 2024 trade-up proposal (aimed at acquiring Drake Maye) or Tennessee to sign off on a Cam Ward-geared pursuit this year, used No. 34 overall and 2025 and ’26 third-rounders to move up for Dart.
Stafford was briefly available, and Rodgers continues to hold off on a Steelers signing. It is not known if the Giants engaged with the Seahawks on Geno Smith, but they did look closely at a Sam Darnold pursuit. PFR’s No. 1 2025 free agent, Darnold was believed to be high on the Giants’ QB list in March. Coming off a bounce-back season with the Vikings, Darnold carried tremendous value due to his 2024 form and age. The 2018 Jets draftee will not turn 28 until June, and after he had signed on to be a bridge QB in Minnesota last year, a 35-touchdown pass season gave him more leverage on the market this year. It would thus be unsurprising if Darnold did not strongly consider a Giants team that had also been closely tied to a QB draft move for months.
Darnold returning to New York, considering how his Jets run went, also loomed as a hurdle in the Giants’ path. The eighth-year veteran is now a Seahawk, having joined the team on a deal (three years, $100.5MM) that reminds of Derek Carr‘s 2022 Raiders extension. Seattle can escape the contract with fairly low dead money by releasing Darnold before a roster bonus is due in mid-February. The Seahawks did discuss their Jalen Milroe plans with Darnold, who enters the season as the team’s clear-cut starter.
Daboll has confirmed Wilson is the Giants’ starter, but with the team investing plenty in Dart in a year that features Daboll and GM Joe Schoen on hot seats, the No. 25 overall pick usurping the ex-Seahawks superstar early in the season should not be ruled out.
The Giants do open their season with a gauntlet, as six games against 2024 playoff teams reside on their schedule’s first eight weeks. A friendlier second half does present a Dart runway, but Daboll and Schoen already moved to their respective hot seats based largely on the Jones situation. It stands to reason they will want to at least see Dart in action early, as pressure mounts, though the team will also need to balance this desire out with a debut range that would make the Ole Miss prospect look promising.