NFL Insider Claims Giants Once Had Shedeur Sanders at Top of Their Draft Board

Shedeur Sanders was long regarded as a surefire first-round pick until an utter collapse at the NFL Draft made him a day three choice by the Cleveland Browns.

Apr 4, 2025; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) passes the ball at the University of Colorado NFL Showcase at the CU Indoor Practice Facility. | Michael Ciaglo-Imagn Images

For the months leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, the New York Giants, and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders were constantly mentioned as the closest things to a match made in heaven, if there ever was one. 

The Giants parted ways with Daniel Jones during the 2024 season and went on to a 3-14 record behind three other signal callers. They were ready to start fresh with a new quarterback, one that general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll could call their own. 

With the quarterback position believed to be their most significant need on the roster, both in the short and long term, many draft analysts spoke glowingly about how Sanders, the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, would be their ideal prospect. 

On the intangibles side, Sanders had a lot to intrigue teams like the Giants. He was arguably the most accurate passer at the college level last season and produced at a very high rate while protecting the football and leading two once-beleaguered programs, Jackson State and Colorado, back into relevancy. 

According to NFL insider Dianna Russini on the Scoop City podcast, watching all those things at Sanders’ games in Boulder reportedly convinced the Giants to place him at the top of their draft board by the end of the regular season. 

"At one point towards the end of the season, the New York Giants had Shedeur Sanders on their board, which ranked number one," Russini said on the podcast. "Once they realized they weren’t going to get Cam Ward [at No. 3], Shedeur was their top quarterback,” she claimed.

However, as time would tell, Sanders ended up dropping heavily from a projected top-five selection into the depths of the draft’s third day before the Cleveland Browns took a flier on the gregarious gunslinger at No. 144 overall in the fifth round–two rounds after they took a different arm in Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel. 

Something caused the sudden shift in the Giants’ logic, and Russini explains how it originated once they met Sanders as a person instead of just a player. 

Apr 4, 2025; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) talks to ESPN after the University of Colorado NFL Showcase at the CU Indoor Practice Facility. | Michael Ciaglo-Imagn Images

“Something between the end of the season and the draft. Something happened. Well, what happened? You got to know Shedeur. And they got to meet with him. And Brian Daboll got to talk with him. And members of the Giants got to spend more time, and that time, they were able to learn more about the player."

Along with Russini’s reporting, additional reports suggested that Daboll was the one person in the Giants’ collective brass who didn’t love the idea of partnering with Sanders. Much of it came down to how Sanders performed at a private meeting with the team. 

CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones claimed that Sanders came extremely unprepared for his job interview with the Giants and that Daboll was not shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with the prospective quarterback. 

In addition, Sanders was said to be treating the meetings as more of a recruiting visit, where he would try to sell the franchise on how he would change the current culture as the huddle leader. 

Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter went so far as to question what he viewed as missteps made by Sanders and his father that rubbed teams the wrong way, including the decisions to not work out at the Shrine Bowl and combined with his laid-back attitude in thinking that he had done enough to convince the NFL world that he was the answer they had been seeking at quarterback to his father’s proclamation about going behind the scenes to ensure his son landed with an NFL team that the family liked.

WOW: #NFL LEGEND CRIS CARTER GOES OFF ON SHEDEUR SANDERS FOR THROWING AWAY NEARLY $50 MILLION IN THE DRAFT.

“They taught him a great lesson.”

Carter says that the Sanders family overplayed their hand and that there was no collusion among the owners.pic.twitter.com/PnedZeE8X6

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) April 29, 2025

So instead of securing Sanders at the top of the draft, the Giants ditched any thought of handing in Sanders’ name card and used their No. 3 pick to fortify the defensive front with Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter before trading back up into the bottom half of the first round to take Ole Miss product Jaxson Dart to become Daboll’s apprentice. 

As much as one hopes Sanders learns from his experience and matures ahead of his first year in the pros, it might have worked out in the end for the Giants. 

Dart, who finished third in the nation in passing production with the Rebels, will have the chance to learn behind a coach regarded as one of the brightest offensive minds in the league in Daboll and two veteran arms in Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. 

If all goes well and the Giants right the ship with more wins in 2025, Dart can assume the reins and finally be the quarterback Daboll has waited for to revive the franchise. 

With the right amount of patience, he has the arm strength, grit, and athleticism to become something special.

Whether the decision turns out to be the right one will be known in a few years, but these reports clearly show that Sanders’s fit within the Giants’ culture was not viewed as a good one.

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