ESPN's Field Yates: Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston shouldn't stop Giants from drafting Shedeur Sanders

ESPN’s Field Yates released his latest 2025 NFL Mock Draft on Tuesday. There are a ton of unknowns this April, and one of the more polarizing teams within the first couple of picks is the New York Giants at No. 3. 

The Giants have signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, so their quarterback situation is a bit murky. The franchise could look elsewhere in the NFL Draft, like Penn State’s Abdul Carter or Colorado’s Travis Hunter, but Yates still believes Shedeur Sanders will be the pick, and that’s who he mocked to the Giants in his latest group of predictions.

He proclaimed the signing of two veteran quarterbacks as “irrelevant” if the team is truly interested in Sanders as their future franchise quarterback. Yates joined Get Up on ESPN to shed some more light on the possibility of New York bringing the former Buffaloes star to The Big Apple in 2025.

“We were just talking about this, how the Pittsburgh Steelers last year added a couple of quarterbacks, and here they are — it’s already April, and they have no plan for 2025. So, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston both signed contracts that are certainly not reflective of guys that are sure-bets to be your quarterback for maybe even a full season this year,” Yates stated. “As a team, you don’t plan on picking No. 3 overall year-in, year-out. You can be just bad enough to be far enough removed from No. 1 in the draft that you might miss out on a top quarterback prospect. The Giants learned that last year, when they were at No. 6 overall and try to make a trade with the Patriots to get to No. 3 overall and the Patriots said, ‘No, this Drake Maye guy is too good to bypass.’

“So, if the Giants are convicted on Shedeur Sanders, nothing they have done up to this point this off-season should hold them back from taking a player who could give them a chance to have a quarterback that could be theirs for the next decade. I know that there’s a lot of opinions on Shedeur Sanders. Mine is well-stated. He’s No. 16 overall on the big board. Let me just say this, we’re in this era now where we’re starting to see the haves and the have-nots with quarterback development. We have seen a lot of teams that have drafted quarterbacks high, done virtually nothing with them, and all of a sudden, the second act of their career has become brilliant.

“Sam Darnold last season, who’s now going to make a lot of money from the Seahawks. Baker Mayfield. We’ve seen Geno Smith, in a much later phase of his career, become a quality starter. I’d like to see some of these teams show that they have the goods to make these players, who may be imperfect, quality starters in the NFL.”

The logic is sound. Will the Giants see it that way? That’s the question on everyone’s mind moving forward. One thing is for sure, the team has to win now and in the future after a less-than-stellar decade, to put it nicely. Perhaps Sanders can do that for them.

Time will tell what direction they go in, but Shedeur Sanders will be tough for them to pass up if he’s there at No. 3. New York will have a myriad of options, but a potential franchise signal-caller might land in their lap this time around.