PFF Names This Top Prospect as Perfect Draft Fit for Giants

It is one of the common beauties of the NFL Draft when a handful of teams can all seek a similar core of prospects and thus engage in jockeying to see who can gain the best position to lure the next best guy on their big board.

The New York Giants find themselves in a predicament of grappling with who to select with the No. 3 overall pick in April. The question looms: Which collegiate player is really the best candidate for what they need on their roster for the 2025 season?

Many will immediately say that the only real answer is one of two highly touted quarterback prospects: Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Miami’s Cam Ward.

Rightfully so. The Giants have been diminished to one of the worst franchises in the league due to a failed six-year partnership with Daniel Jones and abysmal play from the temporary arms after him.

However, to PFF’s Jordan Plocher and Josh Liskiewitz, landing the golden prospect for the Giants would involve looking outside the predictable gunslinger route dominating most early mock drafts. Instead, they believe the best draft fit for New York is Colorado wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter.

“Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter makes all the sense in the world at No. 3 overall. Hunter is the top cornerback in the draft after picking off five balls and posting an impressive 21.3% forced incompletion percentage,” the outlet’s latest analysis said.

“His double life as a receiver at Colorado will not only help him on defense but will likely result in him making contributions on offense at the next level.”

Nov 23, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Colorado wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) catches the ball ahead of Kansas cornerback Cobee Bryant (2) during the 3rd quarter between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Colorado Buffaloes at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. | Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

One of the two counterarguments from the writers and some on the outside that has led to Hunter, the Big-12 Defensive Player of the Year, gaining some traction regarding his draft positioning is the current status of the Giants organization.

The team’s ownership, predominantly John Mara, has declared a lack of patience with the franchise's current state and expects them to win more games in 2025. With that sort of indirect mandate to general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll to rapidly improve the roster next season, there is a question as to whether getting a rookie quarterback and taking whatever comes with that for that player’s first year is the way to go or if a bridge option is smarter.

Schoen, who said he wouldn’t pull a “Hail Mary” approach to save his job, knows that he has to address the quarterback position in some way, and it’s believed that he will sign a veteran bridge option regardless of what he decides to do in the draft.

As for the third overall pick, Hunter would be the smart and safe pick for a Giants team that needs help at cornerback and receiver.

Taking the risk of hedging assets to make a headline-making move for the new quarterback and seeing it potentially not work would be the nail in the coffin that Schoen and Daboll are trying to avoid unless ownership were to agree that letting a rookie get acclimated is going to take at least a year.

The question all boils down to what exactly Giants ownership expects from Schoen's and Daboll’s fourth season regarding “improvement.”

As hard as it is to pass up on even the few other convincing names in the class position, it might behoove them to repeat last year’s course of action and tab another big playmaker for a bridge quarterback to throw to and lead the Giants to more wins than the three they managed in 2024.

The second thought is that Hunter could help alleviate some of the woes of the Giants' secondary, which is the more captivating draw of his selection. Hunter earned the Chuck Bednarik Award for the nation’s best defensive player and was a force in the deep field, with five interceptions and an impressive 21.3 percent forced incompletion rate.

He can excel particularly in Cover 1 packages and press man looks, the former of which the Giants utilized at nearly a 30 percent clip yet got torched on by their young, inexperienced, and eventually hampered secondary.

Hunter can bring his background as a receiver and his instincts for the ball into the group and create a new bonafide CB1 option for the Giants. He is only a rookie with room to grow.

That is considering that nothing changes within the Giants' entire offense and defense operations. The current expectation is for the coaching staff and schemes to remain mostly the same, but if changes were to come before the draft, it could throw a wrench in the idea of drafting the Colorado star to become the franchise's new face.

Or maybe it doesn’t because Hunter is such a rare and intriguing prospect that any NFL team will have to consider the possibility of him donning their uniform in 2025 and beyond.

As much as the Giants want to solidify their quarterback for the next decade as they did with Eli Manning for 16 durable years, the idea of having an explosive offensive weapon paired with a mind like Brian Daboll and then a lockdown defender on the other side should make them salivate for his potential.

It is a very tough decision to make should it come down when the Giants arrive at the third overall pick and have to make up their minds. How the quarterbacks fare out should help, but then it’s a matter of whether the regime is considering extending their lease on life with a rookie arm or satisfying ownership with the best name that will help them stack victories now.

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