Back in December, Shedeur Sanders floated a draft-day scenario so far-fetched that it made Travis Hunter, his Colorado teammate, smirk halfway through his response.
“The two of us could end up on the same team bruh,” Sanders said on the 2Legendary podcast.
“Definitely the two of us could end up on the same team,” Hunter responded with a wry smile. “I be trying to tell people, you never know what can happen in the draft bro.”
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It’s a fun dream, but sounded almost impossible since both seemed destined to go top 3 at the time. But so much has changed since then. Now, with Sanders’ stock falling and the draft just three weeks away, there’s a realistic path for one, maybe two teams to pair the Jackson State/Colorado duo together in the NFL.
The Giants should be all over this.
General manager Joe Schoen said this week that he won’t reach on a quarterback with the No. 3 pick if he doesn’t feel they’re worth it. He addressed plenty of needs — including QB — in free agency and no longer feels hamstrung into reaching on a new franchise face. “We can go any which direction,” the hot-seat GM said at the owners’ meetings Monday.
This obviously opened the door for rampant “Hunter to the Giants” speculation — which NJ Advance Media first heard about at last month’s scouting combine. It also made fans and pundits wonder which rookie QB they might pivot to (given they’ll almost certainly still take one at some point).
Maybe they don’t have to pivot. Maybe Sanders — who, again, is dropping in most mock drafts — will fall so late into the first that Schoen can pull off an easy trade up for him. Every team from picks No. 4 to No. 20 has a franchise quarterback, after all. The only other teams Schoen would conceivably have to worry about is the Steelers, who pick 21st, the Rams, who pick 26th and the Browns, who could trade back into Round 1 too.
So, what would a trade up to the 20th pick, held by the Broncos, cost? Per the draft trade value chart, the Giants’ 34th, 65th and 154th picks this year should be more than enough to get it done (Schoen could also probably swap out the 65th for a future third, if he so chooses).
But would it be worth it? You bet.
Schoen would be foolish to take Sanders, who some scouts believe to be closer to a Day 2 prospect than top QB Cam Ward, at No. 3. Trading up for him late in the first — right around where his actual prospect value is — is a different story.
Schoen deserves a ton of credit if make this once pie-in-the-sky dream the pair joked about a reality.
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Ryan Novozinsky may be reached at rnovozinsky@njadvancemedia.com. You can follow him on X@ryannovoNFL