How New York Giants Roster Stacks Up at Premium Positions

The most important position in all sports is quarterback—the quarterback is the highest-paid, earliest-drafted position for a reason. The Giants don’t have a player there who should be considered a franchise player.

Russell Wilson is average at this point in his career. While he’s good enough to be a starter with whom a team can win games, he won’t be the guy who carries teams to wins anymore.

For the future, the Giants invested heavily by trading up to draft Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Dart will need time to develop and become the guy, but he has all the physical tools to succeed and should have the time to learn.

Status: A future building block is present.

Pass-catcher

People may list this as wide receiver since that’s the most impactful pass-catcher, and a great receiver is more impactful than an elite tight end.

Malik Nabers gives the Giants an answer for the present day and the future, as he proved himself to be a dominant rookie and was selected in the first round last year to hit the qualification for a future building block.

Jalin Hyatt is in the final year of his eligibility as a future building block after being a third-round pick in 2023.

Status: The present building block is also the future building block.

Offensive Tackle

Despite dealing with injuries in recent years, Andrew Thomas is still undeniably one of the better offensive tackles in the NFL.

Hopefully, Thomas will be healthy in 2025 and should return to his top form.

At right tackle, there’s no proven answer there, and the Giants haven’t used any premium draft picks for the position in recent years after the failure of having Evan Neal there.

Status: One present building block but no future block.

Pass-rusher

Like pass-catcher, this is a spot where people may want to say edge rusher specifically, but teams prioritize interior pass-rush more than ever before.

The Giants have the most elite group of pass-rushers in the NFL, with Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns as proven building blocks.

For the future, the Giants have Abdul Carter and Darius Alexander, who could be considered here.

Carter is an obvious yes, and for Alexander, it’s a toss-up whether someone would classify him as a pass-rusher, which I would.

Status: The Giants have multiple players for the present and future at pass-rusher.

Outside Cornerback

The Giants' cornerback room lacks a proven building block for the present day, but multiple players can enter that realm in 2025.

2023 first-round pick Deonte Banks had a strong rookie year but struggled throughout 2024.

Free agent signing Paulson Adebo also has the potential to become an answer here after starting his career with the New Orleans Saints.

Banks is in his final year as a qualifier for being a future building block, and Dru Phillips was a 2024 third-round draft pick, but since he plays in the nickel, he doesn’t qualify either.

Status: No present building block, but a future building block.

Overall

The Giants have proven building blocks at pass-catcher, offensive tackle, and pass-rusher right now, which puts this roster in the best shape it’s been in in years.

For future building blocks, the Giants have players that qualify at every position except for offensive tackle.

Even at offensive tackle, the easy explanation is that they hit on one draft pick, Thomas, and then tried to land another pillar player, Neal, but that didn’t work out.

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