For the first time in what feels like forever (probably because it is), the New York Giants had a successful NFL draft class in 2025. Between Jerry Reese, Dave Gettleman, and Joe Schoen, coming away with a productive Giants' draft class has felt as rare as Halley's Comet, so hopefully we don't have to wait as long for the trend to continue.
Schoen and Big Blue landed three franchise cornerstones in Jaxson Dart, Abdul Carter, and Cam Skattebo and two solid contributors in Darius Alexander and Marcus Mbow, yet the draft class is still getting disrespected despite being one of the most successful 2025 draft classes in all of football.
Now that the 2025 season is officially in the books CBS Sports' Josh Edwards graded all 32 NFL draft classes from last year, where he ranked the Giants seventh with a solid B+ grade, but that feels incredibly disrespectful given the circumstances and some of the teams he graded ahead of them.
The Giants' 2025 NFL Draft class is still failing to get the respect it deserves
Edwards had the Saints, Titans, and Panthers ahead of the G-Men, which is where he loses me. This whole debate is between the rookie quarterbacks, and obviously, I am not the poster child for objectivity right now, but you can't tell me that Dart hasn't been more successful than those guys.
The 22-year-old's numbers don't jump off the page, but at least Dart was consistent all season long, which even came in the face of losing his two top weapons due to injury. Both Cam Ward and Tyler Shough looked great down the stretch, but they looked really shaky at points this season as well.
Additionally, the Titans drafted no other quality contributor beyond Ward, who merely showed flashes of greatness in a horrible situation. Chimere Dike is a glorified special teamer, and Gunnar Helm is a solid starter. That doesn't exactly add up to a grade better than New York's 2025 draft class to me.
As for the Saints, they're led by Kelvin Banks Jr. and Shough, but the Dart-Shough debate should be won by the younger signal-caller who has done more with less. And the Panthers' draft class doesn't have anything to phone home about besides reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan.
Let's look at the Giants draft class from the top down. Carter got things going down the stretch after a brutal start to the year in an awful defensive scheme, Skattebo looked like one-half of a fearsome RB tandem before injury, and both Alexander and Mbow displayed promise in limited action this year.
That is a lot of contributors for a draft class that didn't have loads of selections. Having the Bears, Patriots, and Browns ahead of them at least makes sense, but if QB is the most important position and the Giants have the best rookie QB and best rookies around him, it's clear they should be higher.