The man who led the Notre Dame football team to the National Championship game is looking for an NFL home. There is at least one draft analyst who believes Riley Leonard will definitely find one on the streets of Gotham.
According to Sports Illustrated, Derrik Klassen of The Athletic has pegged the perfect fit for the New York Giants in the 2025 NFL Draft and as it turns out, their apparent reluctance to draft a quarterback in the first round might be very beneficial to Leonard. If they don’t take Shedeur Sanders with the No. 3 pick, Klassen thinks it might be quite a while before they grab a signal caller.
The former Notre Dame football gunslinger is said to be the kind of prototypical quarterback the Giants like. “The 6-foot-4, 218-pound Leonard has proven to be a weapon on designed runs and the red zone,” Klassen stated. “And while his throwing game needs some more refinement, he has a lot of upside that a quarterback whisperer such as Daboll could very well be the one to unlock.”
There have been some NFL scouts who have mentioned Leonard in the same breath as Taysom Hill of the Saints, given his athleticism and ability to multitask at a high level. And that ability to be a kind of gadget player might be attractive to some teams.
Could Riley Leonard be the Giants’ next quarterback project?
If there is any real drawback to the Giants taking Leonard it’s that most fans of the G-Men would almost immediately see a parallel to their team drafting a former Duke quarterback whose greatest strength was his mobility.
New York just rid itself of the Daniel Jones after several years of hoping that he could finally become the quarterback they needed. That he and Leonard were both Blue Devils at one time - even if Leonard’s final season came in South Bend - makes it seem unlikely that an embattled GM would make Riley his key quarterback draft pick.
However, it’s clear that general manager Joe Schoen has a type. If he follows through with his comments about not wanting to be pressured into drafting a quarterback too high, maybe the Notre Dame football product is the right fit.