EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The scouting process for the New York Giants to find their next franchise quarterback ended Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky. That is where they held a final private workout with former Louisville QB Tyler Shough after traveling to Alabama and Colorado in previous days to do the same with Jalen Milroe and Shedeur Sanders, respectively. The Giants also had a private workout with former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart earlier this spring.
Those four quarterback prospects are the most likely candidates to be selected by the Giants in this year’s NFL draft, which begins Thursday night. New York, which picks No. 3 and No. 34 in the first two rounds, met with most of the draft’s top quarterback prospects in recent months to determine who might be the right fit.
Now, it’s decision time after deferring on the position last year.
At the center of it is the Giants’ quarterback evaluation process that general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll can only hope comes up aces. They’re confident it can work.
“We have a process in place that we’ve had. This dates back to when [Daboll] and I worked together in Miami [in 2011],” Schoen said. “I remember Andy Dalton, [Ryan] Mallett, some of those guys. It’s a pretty thorough process in place that we believe in, and we’ve seen the results play out at the position.
“I’m not going to get into specifics of that, but it’s been tested, it’s true, and a lot of times, it’s panned out whether we liked or didn’t like a prospect and how they projected to the next level.”
Their process includes the requisite background check — attending games and practices during the season, talking to the player, coaches, high school coaches, teammates — and concludes with a private workout. This year, there have been even more checkpoints. In Sanders’ case, it also included — among other things — a trip in January to the Shrine Bowl, where Daboll sat down with the quarterback for 45 minutes at his hotel.
“If you love football, you’re going to love being a part of that organization, especially offensively,” Milroe told ESPN in a recent interview connected with his involvement with USAA. “And they were able to grasp that with me communicating with them, hearing my thought process and how I view X’s and O’s and how I comprehend things. It’s all about the comprehending of their playbook and understanding their philosophies on offense. Everybody’s philosophy is different on offense, but it’s more how they view their system of offense.
“It’s big with understanding them and how they understand football in the lens that they do.”
Milroe has made a strong impression on the Giants, according to a source. He could be in play if they move back into the first round or on Day 2.
Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord recently had a visit with the Giants and told “The Rich Eisen Show” that of all the teams “they definitely were the one that tested me the most.”
Their process is tough. Perhaps too tough? The Giants haven’t drafted a quarterback since Schoen and Daboll took over in 2022. This has been the result as they look at everything throughout the process — from the way the players interact with the driver picking them up from the airport to how quickly they learn certain plays. Daboll gives each quarterback some plays to learn prior to their visit and workouts. He then constantly tests their recall. It was on full display during last year’s “Hard Knocks” with Jayden Daniels.
It’s more than that, though. The Giants want to see how these prospects do simple tasks such as setting a reservation for dinner when they come to town or making sure they have a video guy scheduled to attend their meetings. Everything is a test of their character and thought process, even for what seem to be the most menial tasks.
The Giants met with almost all the top quarterback prospects this year at the NFL combine, pro day, during a visit to their facility, on phone calls and/or video conferences and private workouts. There was a lot of contact leading up to the draft, perhaps even more than usual. One scout said the Giants had a presence at every Colorado game.
It’s hardly a surprise, considering owner John Mara said earlier this year that the team’s No. 1 offseason priority was to find a quarterback of the future.
“So, all those touch points are important,” Schoen said. “You start to gain information and it starts to stack up. And if it’s good, you see it. If there’s some red flags, then you dig a little bit more on what those red flags may be and at the end of the day, try to have confirmation and conviction on what you’re going to do.”
The Giants’ process also has Daboll staying in touch with the draft’s top quarterbacks regularly after their meetings. It’s not unusual for him to text them at all hours of the day, according to multiple sources. He has sent a text at 5 a.m. to ask if the quarterback prospect is up yet or if he plans to throw later that afternoon.
For the Giants, and Daboll in particular, the private workout is a massive piece of the puzzle. Daboll doesn’t attend many pro days. Of the five aforementioned quarterbacks, he attended only Sanders’ showcase at Colorado, and that was as a last-minute addition to the travel party after initially saying he wasn’t going.
The private workout allows Daboll to see the quarterbacks throw live under his guidance. It also allows the Giants to see how the prospect handles the play script they were provided days before the workout. It’s specifically designed with a focus on the Giants’ offensive scheme.
This is significantly different and more useful from the team perspective than the pro day workout because it hasn’t been rehearsed for weeks and catered toward the quarterbacks’ strengths. Instead, the private workout script is based on what the team likes to do and wants to see.
Daboll downplayed this process he has created along with Schoen. But the Giants also aren’t giving away any trade secrets.
“I don’t think it’s anything. A lot of guys evaluate — it’s not the right or wrong way. We do a variety of different things with these players,” Daboll said. “Put them in a lot of different situations, no different than I’m sure a lot of teams do. You just got to try to check off the boxes with the things you ask them to do and touch points and people that you talk to.
” …The person that you’re talking with and the Zooms and the 30 visits and the private meetings and all those things play into it. Most importantly, you have to evaluate the film.”
The Giants believe what they’re doing works, even if they haven’t drafted a quarterback since 2022. The only collegiate quarterback they added was Tommy DeVito as an undrafted free agent that year.
“It is thorough,” Schoen said. “We have different ways to measure things, and it’s been pretty good.”
Schoen and Daboll were part of the group that selected Josh Allen in Buffalo during the 2018 NFL draft. The only quarterback that Daboll has been a part of drafting as an offensive coordinator or head coach since 2011 is Allen, who just won the league’s MVP.
Schoen was part of the selection of Allen and on the staff in Miami that took Ryan Tannehill eighth overall out of Texas A&M in 2012 and Brandon Doughty in the seventh round out of Western Kentucky in 2016. Tannehill didn’t exactly thrive in Miami, but he made a Pro Bowl and had success in Tennessee. Doughty never appeared in an NFL game.
At some point, Schoen and Daboll will take a shot on a quarterback in the draft in New York before it’s too late. That will determine if this process they created is a success or is best at recognizing good quarterbacks who play for other teams.
