3. New York Giants: Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
I don’t think it’s impossible that a team like the New York Giants is going to talk themselves into taking a quarterback here in the first round, regardless of whether or not the selection has merit.
When you look at some of the pre-draft rankings that are out there from the experts who grade each player in the class, Sanders does not grade overly well. Certainly not highly enough to go third overall. This could truly be one of those “beauty in the eye of the beholder” types of classes.
But these teams have had the chance to be around Sanders all year long. They know he’s got the right mental makeup for the NFL, but will the speed of the game be too much for him? That was a similar question facing Josh Allen back in 2018 and Brian Daboll helped work wonders for him. Maybe he can do something similar for Sanders in 2025.
4. New England Patriots: Travis Hunter, WR/CB, Colorado
When you look at the top playmakers in this draft class, Travis Hunter is on a tier of his own. Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this past year at Colorado and proved his worth as an elite prospect on both offense and defense.
There are legitimate questions about whether or not this guy is a top-10 player at both positions and I think the answer to those questions is emphatically yes.
But for the New England Patriots, I would love to see Hunter become the WR1 for Drake Maye and the new-look New England offense. The Patriots went out and hired Mike Vrabel in the 2025 offseason, and Vrabel knows a thing or two about versatility and playing both ways in the NFL. I do believe we’ll see Hunter play both offense and defense at the NFL level, but his primary impact should be putting his elite ball skills and body control to use at receiver.