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Cover 3: Final thoughts from 2025 NFL Combine

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The Giants.com crew wraps up the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine with final thoughts from the week in Indianapolis.

John Schmeelk: The NFL Combine was a little disappointing because so many of the top players at each position decided not to work out or couldn't due to injury: Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Ashton Jeanty, Travis Hunter, Tet McMillan, Emeka Egbuka, Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, Kenneth Grant, Mason Graham, Walter Nolen, Tyleik Williams, Jalon Walker, Mykel Williams, Abdul Carter, Will Johnson, Shavon Revel, and Benjamin Morrison. I came up with that list just off the top of my head without even looking for more.

Much of what we thought about this class was confirmed by what we saw. The running backs, even without Jeanty working out, were perhaps the most impressive group I have seen at that position since I started covering the draft in earnest more than 10 years ago. Seemingly every player in the group ran either in the 4.3s or 4.4s. They jumped well and showed great agility. You could have 10 players from the running back position go in the top 100.

I don't take a bunch out of the quarterback workouts, but the only player that really jumped out at me was Louiseville's Tyler Shough. His arm was really impressive as he got the ball outside the numbers with pace and velocity.

The defensive tackles and edge groups were impressive. The cornerback and wide receiver groups are not the best in this class, but they put up some fast 40-yard dash times. The tight ends, also one of the better groups in the class, didn't test quite as well as I thought they would. The offensive line group might not have a huge quantity of top-level tackles, but I think you'll get a fair share of average starters outside of the first round, with more probably coming at guard than tackle.

View photos from the Giants' suite in Indianapolis, where the team is gathered to evaluate the top draft prospects.

Dan Salomone: The general manager press conferences always get my attention at the combine, and this year was no different with Joe Schoen. Naturally, the main topic – but not the only one – was the Giants' plan at quarterback. Schoen said the week was a good time to feel out potential trade scenarios and time frames for other teams on making deals, especially after the salary cap was announced at a record $279.2 million per club while everyone was in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders have emerged as the top quarterbacks in the media, and the Giants have done "a lot of work" on both. They met with Sanders at the East-West Shrine Bowl in Texas. Last week, it was the first time that Schoen met with Ward, even though the general manager had seen him play in person.

Schoen attended Miami's early October thriller at the University of California, Berkeley, which hosted ESPN's "College GameDay" for the first time in school history. Down by 25 points in the third quarter and 20 early in the fourth, Ward orchestrated the Hurricanes' biggest comeback since 1999. The 2024 Davey O'Brien Award winner led them on four consecutive touchdown drives, including the game-winning pass with 26 seconds left for a 39-38 victory.

"They dug themselves a little bit of a hole," Schoen said. "Some of it was on [him]. They were in a hole because of him, but he also was able to get them out of it. They won the game because of him. Those are traits that you look for, the gotta-have-it moments whether it's Virginia Tech, that Cal game to bring a team back and when everybody in the building knows you're going to throw it, that you can throw it. And there's several quarterbacks in this that are like that, not just Cam."

The Giants, whose only returning quarterback is Tommy DeVito, hold the third overall pick. Schoen said they are looking "under every rock" and would prefer to match a young quarterback, if they draft one, with a veteran in free agency.

"We don't know what's going to happen in the draft," Schoen said. "We don't know who's going to be there. When we get around these kids, they may or may not be a fit for us. We're going to have to address the position somewhere. Even if you get a young quarterback, you'd like to have a vet in the room with him to show him the ropes and how to be a pro. We're looking at all different avenues. It's, hey, is this guy going to be really good for a young quarterback or is this guy a starter or can we get a guy in the draft. If we do, should we have a guy that's more of a guy that can develop and show a guy how to be a pro. We're going look at vets. We're going to look at the draft. We're going to look at trade candidates. We're going to look under every rock to find the best prospect for us going into the '25 season."

Matt Citak: Just like every other year, the week in Indianapolis led to some prospects separating themselves from their peers. While we could go down the list and talk about which prospects rose and fell at each position, today I'm just going to focus on the most important one – quarterback. Despite neither one taking part in on-field drills, the apparent consensus coming out of Indy is that Miami's Cam Ward has established himself as the top quarterback in this year's draft, followed by Colorado's Shedeur Sanders.

I spoke about this on Monday’s Big Blue Kickoff Live, but this separation most likely does not stem from anything that happened at the combine. But the more likely scenario is that the media is just now catching up to how NFL talent evaluators have felt since the end of the college football season. As we see each year, a lot can change between now and the start of the draft. But from what people around the league seem to be saying right now, Ward will most likely be the first quarterback selected come April 24.

For most people, this won't come as much of a surprise. However, performances from some of the guys in the next tier of quarterbacks below Ward and Sanders likely did cause some changes in draft boards. For starters, Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart had a very impressive week. From his media session at the podium to his performance during positional drills, Dart likely solidified his standing as QB3. Some people now believe Dart could go as early as the middle of the first round, a stark rise from his likely Day 2 projection a couple of weeks ago. Similarly, Texas' Quinn Ewers also did a really nice job during his throwing session. It wasn't a perfect performance from Ewers, but he made enough big-time throws to likely boost his draft stock. The same goes for Louisville's Tyler Shough, whose biggest knock in the media's eyes seems to be his age (he turns 26 in September), something he said NFL teams don't appear to care too much about.

View photos from the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine as prospects take the field for drills.

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