We’re not sure whether it’s a miracle that Stephen A. Smith and ESPN waited over two days before suggesting the New York Giants trade for Shedeur Sanders.
Any hopes of football fans avoiding the inevitable ended on Thursday morning, when ESPN’s controversial pundit broached the topic during a “First Take” segment. Jaxson Dart’s regular season-ending knee injury opens the possibility of the Giants adding another quarterback to sit behind Jameis Winston, a reality that John Harbaugh acknowledged on Wednesday.
But why pursue a veteran backup, either via trade or the practice squad, when you can acquire an incredibly divisive second-year player?
"It ain't about looking for a top-30 quarterback," Smith said. "It’s about looking for a better backup than Jameis Winston.”
The New York Giants must avoid trading for Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders
Long before Smith and the “First Take” crew obsessed over Sanders or Dak Prescott, they instead spent their time talking nonstop about Tim Tebow. Some of you younger readers may have only heard the memes and references rather than experiencing it firsthand, as we all did in 2011 and 2012.
We envy you. Greatly.
In fairness to Smith, we agree with his belief that Winston making bad decisions — which, based on his track record over the past decade, we assume refers solely to his penchant for interceptions — feels inevitable. The national media has turned the 2015 No. 1 pick into the ideal backup while ignoring that he has thrown an interception on 3.7% of his 712 passes since the start of 2021.
But if you’re the Giants, you should be inquiring about Jimmy Garoppolo or the Raiders’ Aidan O’Connell, assuming that the latter would come cheap enough. Let them be the backup behind Winston, who has 89 career starts and can at least offer semi-competent quarterback play. No one is expecting him to suddenly look like Peyton Manning in the older “Madden” games.
What value does Sanders bring to any of the league’s other 31 teams? He couldn’t beat out Deshaun Watson for the starting job despite both getting a fresh start with a new coaching staff. Analysts sat shocked throughout the 2025 draft as the ex-Colorado standout fell to the fifth round despite all of the pre-reports about Sanders’ play style and his perceived immaturity. And despite having a Pro Bowl selection on his résumé, he was mediocre at best during his rookie year.
That’s a wonderful combination for a Giants team whose season is already teetering on the brink of total disaster. Joe Schoen is better off grabbing Nick Mullens from the Jaguars’ practice squad
But ESPN knows that the more they talk about Sanders, the more engagement they’ll get on social media. Those at the Worldwide Leader likely wish that the modern social media climate existed during Tebow and the Broncos’ run. We were “lucky” enough to have YouTube remixes of Skip Bayless treating Tebow like the greatest quarterback we’d ever seen.
Tebow never played again following the 2012 season, and we won’t be shocked if the same applies to Sanders. Not that Smith or the rest of "First Take" would stop pitching him as a viable backup quarterback even if he retired to make TikTok videos of him sailing the Seven Seas.
Add us as a preferred source on Google