PALM BEACH, Fla. — Shedeur Sanders will be the center of attention — or at least share the spotlight with cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter — at Colorado’s Pro Day on Friday.
The workout will take place on campus in Boulder, and Giants head coach Brian Daboll will not be there.
“Usually I don’t attend Pro Days,’’ Daboll said Tuesday at the NFL annual meeting.
This is true. Daboll last week did not attend the Miami Pro Day, featuring Cam Ward, in Coral Gables.
He strongly prefers bringing in quarterback prospects for private workouts that are more challenging for the player than the heavily scripted Pro Day events held in the friendly confines of a college facility, with the player doing only what he wants to do to impress the contingent of assembled NFL scouts and personnel.
Daboll last year did make it to Jayden Daniels’ LSU Pro Day — made even more of a must-see because Malik Nabers was also on the field in Baton Rouge — and made his way to Washington’s Pro Day for Michael Penix Jr. and receiver Rome Odunze.
Those were exceptions for Daboll, based on other circumstances with the availability of the players that interested the Giants.
For example, Daniels was not going to agree to a private workout with the Giants because he knew he was not falling to them at No. 6 overall in the first round.
Daboll played it close to the vest as far as revealing anything about his feelings for this year’s NFL draft quarterback class, other than to describe the group as “good players’’ and “good people’’ and acknowledge: “We’ve done extensive work on a bunch of ’em.’’
With the signings of veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, general manager Joe Schoen said the Giants put themselves in a position where they do not need to take a quarterback at No. 3.
The evaluations are ongoing — “We’re still in the middle of that,’’ Daboll said — and it is certainly no certainty that the Giants would take Sanders if he were on the board when their selection comes up.
The expectation is for the Titans to take Ward at No. 1. The Giants know they will get a shot at selecting either pass rusher Abdul Carter or Hunter, and their choice could come down to one of those stud defensive prospects — the Giants view Hunter as primarily a cornerback — and Sanders.
If it is Sanders, he would not play right away, with Wilson and Winston ahead of him on the depth chart.
“I would say that the player that you want to take when you’re selecting that high is, does he have to help you right away?’’ Daboll said. “I think you just have to have a great plan for that player and you think that player is really going to help your organization. If that’s being a backup for a little while, then that’s being a backup for a little while. If it’s to come in and start and play a bunch of plays, that’s great too.’’
Daboll says he knows Sanders’ father and coach, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him,’’ Daboll said.
Daboll interacted with Shedeur at the East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas.
“You don’t know when they’re going to get taken,’’ Daboll said of the vagaries of the draft. “If there is an affinity you have for a player, if you feel like that player is the right player and they’re sitting there at whatever pick you have, is it a reach, not a reach, I’m not going to get into that. It’s how you feel about the player and does that player match where you want to take them.’’