The Giants are in clear need of a new franchise quarterback after parting ways with Daniel Jones (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
Former longtime New York Giants offensive lineman Justin Pugh believes there's no doubt that his former team is selecting a quarterback with one of the top picks in next year's draft.
The Giants are 2-11 and in clear need of a new franchise quarterback after parting ways with Daniel Jones. After signing Jones to a four-year, $160 million contract, the 27-year-old had fizzled as the franchise quarterback, going 3-13 over the past two seasons prior to being released at the end of November.
With New York on track to gain one of the top two selections in the 2025 NFL Draft, Pugh makes a prediction that they'll select either Colorado's Shedeur Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward with one of those picks.
"They're going to do it," said Pugh to RG when asked if the Giants are picking a quarterback next season. "There's too much pressure not to do it. If you take Travis Hunter instead of Shedeur or Cam Ward, there's going to be riots in the streets. Everybody lives and breathes by the quarterback. I'm much firmer of a believer that you pay your QB a certain percentage of salary cap and young QB's fit that bill."
A Quick Re-Tool
Pugh – who played with the Giants between 2013 and 2017 and was also teammates with Jones during the 2023 season in New York – says the team will likely "mortgage" the future in an effort to win immediately in the post-Jones era.
That means the Giants will be looking for their franchise quarterback as soon as this offseason; a "Jayden Daniels" type of passer.
Pugh believes the key turning point in the franchise's trajectory is when the Giants prioritized re-signing Jones rather than franchise RB Saquon Barkley during the 2023 offseason. New York signed Jones to a monster contract in the offseason while placing the non-exclusive franchise tag on Barkley.
The two-time Pro Bowl running back would eventually sign with the team's divisional rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, this year. Barkley has since emerged as the NFL's top running back, leading the league in rushing yards (1,623) and yards per attempt (6.1). He's also helped lead Philadelphia to a resurgent season after a disappointing finish last year, with an 11-2 mark through 13 games.
"I think the Giants and Joe Schoen messed up with Saquon Barkley," said Pugh.
"He was more than just a running back. If you're paying receivers $35 million a year, you're telling me you can't pay Barkley $500K more per year to get into the $13 million mark? If the top receivers are worth $30 million, Saquon has to be in the $15 million range.
"When you have that drama for two years drag on and you draft guys early in the draft that aren't All-Pro's and you have to bench Evan Neal – and he's probably not going to be with the Giants moving forward either – it starts to develop this track record where people are coming after Joe Schoen," Pugh continues to say.
The Big Apple Pressure
The Giants haven't won a playoff game since winning the Super Bowl in 2011 and have just two playoff appearances during that time frame. They've also had five different full-time head coaches, indicating that the franchise has been rather unstable.
"When you are constantly trying to overturn a team in one or two years and there's pressure, if you don't make this team into the Detroit Lions in two years, you're a failure," says Pugh. "It impacts decision-making and it forces you to do things to win now and not to win into the future."
Despite Schoen's recent shaky track record as general manager, Pugh argues in favor of giving the 45-year-old a three-year runway to rebuild for the future.
"Give them a three-year runway," says Pugh of Schoen's future with the Giants.
"I know people are going to freak out, people came for my head. They're like, 'Off with his head for saying he should be given three more years.' Let them build for the future – Joe Schoen's got to hit in the draft. You can't draft any more guys and not have them hit, that's going to hurt your track record. It starts with allowing those guys to have some structure, have some confidence they're going to be there for a little awhile and allow them to truly carry out their vision."
DJ Siddiqi
