I choose not to throw.

Some quarterbacks say that at the NFL Scouting Combine, and general manager Joe Schoen will never downgrade them for the choice. Shedeur Sanders, widely regarded as one of the top two quarterbacks in this year's draft class along with Cam Ward, is not expected to compete when quarterbacks take the field at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday. Instead, he will focus on team interviews and then work out at Coloardo's pro day.

"I'm OK with that," Schoen said broadly Tuesday morning in Indianapolis. "I played quarterback in high school and college. I also played receiver. I have a son that's a quarterback. So to me, you've never thrown at these receivers before. … If they throw, that's great. I'm never going to downgrade them for not throwing. Then if they don't have a great throwing session, I'm not going to downgrade them for that either because they've never thrown to these guys. It's timing. It's anticipation. It's the type of routes that guys run, their ability to run certain routes. I think that's important as a quarterback when you're throwing at these guys."

It's something to keep in mind as the Giants work through the high-stakes process of finding a quarterback, their stated top priority of the offseason. The Giants, whose only quarterback under contract is Tommy DeVito, are looking "under every rock" and exploring "all avenues" to address the most important position in football.

Shedeur, the son of Deion Sanders, isn't exactly hidden – and neither is Cam Ward.

Schoen and his staff have done "a lot of work" on both and met with Sanders at last month's East-West Shrine Bowl in Texas.

"He's a great kid, a really good personality, football smart, his dad is a football coach," Schoen said at the time. "It's a little bit cliché, but he checks all the boxes of a [player with a] dad that is a football coach and the passion that he approaches the game with. It was good getting to meet him. He's had a really good career at Colorado and obviously looking forward to getting to knowing all those guys in the rest of the process."

This week, it's Ward's turn. The combine is the first time that Schoen will be able to meet with him, even though the general manager has 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."

Winning is the top trait in the Schoen household.

Carson Schoen, the son of the general manager, made some headlines last year when he talked about future AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels in a light moment on "Hard Knocks."

"Listen, last year, he knows where that came from," Schoen said with a smile. "That wasn't all his idea."

Now a freshman high school quarterback, what are the key traits that Schoen wants his son to display?

"We just had this conversation – completions and winner," Schoen said. "I want a winner. I want a guy that can win and complete passes. That's the most important thing. He likes to throw these go balls and deep balls all the time. [I'm just like] take the gains, take positives, take completions, and win games."

Whether Schoen believes that applies to Sanders, Ward, or someone else, his preference would be to surround a young quarterback with a veteran.

"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."

Are they going to look at Matthew Stafford?

"You'd have to ask the Rams that," Schoen said. " ... He's under contract with them, so that would be a question for the Rams."