Key dates Giants fans should know for the 2025 offseason​on January 9, 2025 at 10:44 am

The Giants were heavily featured in the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl with five assistants taking on staffing roles, as well as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka serving as head coach of the West Team.

Over the years, many future Giants have played in the event reserved for college All-Stars such as Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor and Frank Gifford. Coaches affiliated with the Giants include Dan Reeves and Romeo Crennel.

The Reese’s Senior Bowl is an annual event held in Mobile, Alabama. The top college seniors are invited to show off their skills in a game that is similar to the NFL’s Pro Bowl (when they actually played a football game). Many top draft picks appear in this game, so Giants fans should keep their eyes peeled for potential additions to the team.

This year, we’ll see players from Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Miami, Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee, and more. The Giants will have a presence at the game for scouting purposes for the draft, and you can be sure they’ll have heavy eyes on quarterbacks.

Nose tackle Dexter Lawrence was the only Giants player to be selected for the 2025 Pro Bowl Games. After dislocating his elbow and landing on injured reserve earlier in the season, it’s unclear if Lawrence will participate in the games or not. Still, it’s his third straight year being named to the Pro Bowl, highlighting his dominance in a year he couldn’t finish due to injury.

Both Brian Burns and Malik Nabers were named as alternates to the Pro Bowl this year, so they could potentially make appearances if players originally selected do not accept the invitation due to Super Bowl play, injury, or any other reason.

Aside from watching the film, sending scouts to college games, and taking in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, the scouting combine is the single biggest place where general managers, coaches, and scout do their homework on prospective draft picks. Here, they’ll see the vast majority of the players entering the draft, save those who may be injured or choose not to participate.

The combine showcases each players’ skillsets through a variety of tasks that vary by position. Speed, agility, football IQ, field vision, and strength are all tested at this event, giving prospective players a chance to show off what they can do.

On top of that, the players will participate in interviews with coaches and general managers so that all parties can get to know each other and measure how well they mesh. This is a draft prospect’s biggest opportunity to prove themselves.

The NFL’s franchise tag can be used on one player per year, per team. There are three types of franchise tags: Non-exclusive, exclusive, and transitional. Each team gets one exclusive or non-exclusive tag to use each year, and the only way they get a second one is to use a transition tag.

The non-exclusive tag allows the selected player to continue to negotiate with other teams. If they come to an agreement with a team, they have to give the team that tagged them an opportunity to match the offer. If the team decides not to match the offer, they get two first-round draft picks as compensation.

The exclusive tag binds a player to that team. They cannot negotiate with other teams.

The transitional tag is similar to the non-exclusive tag; a player has the right to negotiate with other teams and allow the original team to match the offer. The difference with the transitional tag is that there is no compensation to the original team if the offer is not matched.

Notes: The window to designate a franchise player opens on February 18. The deadline is March 4 and the last day to sign a designated franchise or transition player is July 15.

March 10 opens the two-day window where teams can contact players set to be unrestricted free agents in 2025. No player can sign with another team until 4:00 p.m. EDT on March 12, allowing teams the opportunity to reach out to multiple players and present their offers.

Even if a player decides to sign with a new team, they cannot do that until the approved time, something we saw last year with Saquon Barkley.

The Giants have 30 free agents in 2025, including players like Darius Slayton, Tommy DeVito, Chris Manhertz, and Jamie Gillan. The team will have to find a way to keep some of them, and despite the losses, many of the players seem to like Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll.

Still, plenty will want to leave as well so the Giants have to be vigilant about who they keep.

On March 12 at 4:00 p.m. EDT, NFL teams can begin making trades. It’s not a coincidence that the start of the trade window lines up with the time when free agents can officially sign with new teams.

There are no Giants actively on the trading block as of this writing, however, given how things went in 2024, you can be sure that changes will be made. The Giants don’t have a ton of cap space to work with, making free agency difficult. Trades may be how the Giants improve this offseason.

After taking a few months off of team activities, April 21 is when offseason programs officially begin. In the past, we’ve seen players like Eli Manning and Daniel Jones hosting workouts for teammates during this period, but it is unclear if there are any Giants’ players who will do that this year in the absence of a starting quarterback.

Regardless, most professional athletes have their own routines and ways to keep them in form during the offseason. Voluntary workouts, optional team activities, and mini-camps start as early as April and extend into June. Players will get a short break before mandatory workouts begin in July.

The biggest event of the NFL’s offseason is set to take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 2025. Amidst the frigid temps at Lambeau Field’s frozen tundra, the Giants will have the third overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft.

This year’s draft class leaves a lot to be desired, but the likes of Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward, Travis Hunter, and Ashton Jeanty are all potential top picks in 2025. The Giants must draft wisely this year with jobs potentially on the line.

In the 2022 NFL draft, the Giants selected linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux and offensive lineman Evan Neal in the first round. Schoen will now have to decide if either is worth having their fifth-year option picked up.

For obvious season, it’s unlikely the Giants will pick up Neal’s fifth-year option but it seems they will with Thibodeaux.

The fifth-year option window officially opened on January 6.