Joe Schoen had never drafted a quarterback as general manager, let alone traded up to get one. That all changed on the night of Thursday, April 24.

Following months of meetings and constant travel, the Giants sequestered themselves in the draft room at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center with picks 3, 34, 65, 99, 105, 154, 219, and 246. Then the show began.

The early part of the evening unfolded how they thought it would.

The Titans took Cam Ward at No. 1, the Jaguars traded up with the Browns to select Travis Hunter, and the Giants were in position to land the player they coveted, Penn State's All-American edge rusher Abdul Carter.

Shortly after the selection, Schoen and coach Brian Daboll walked downstairs to the auditorium at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center, where the media had assembled with their cameras and voice recorders.

Eight minutes into the press conference, Tom Rock from Newsday asked, "So, are you done for the night?"

"We'll see," Schoen said with a wry smile.

The general manager and head coach, who were in the throes of their fourth draft together with the Giants but whose relationship dates to 2011 when Schoen was a national scout for the Dolphins and Daboll was their offensive coordinator, then walked back upstairs to rejoin their staffs.

The easy part of the night was done.

The Giants operated all offseason knowing they needed a quarterback of the future, but wisely were not going to force one. After the first wave of free agency brought them defensive backs and not quarterbacks, the clock kept ticking. Mock drafts kept churning.

Then, as the countdown to the draft hit one month, the Giants signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. Suddenly, the quarterback room contained a 10-time Pro Bowler and former No. 1 overall pick.

The Giants were no longer backed into a corner with what to do at the top of the draft. They still had seven more picks, though, including three in the top 100.

"Leading up to the draft, it feels like there were rumors out there that the Giants wanted to move back up into one and just all that was going on," Schoen recalled. "So, I was getting calls from every GM from pick 18 all the way back just because everybody assumed that we wanted to move up.

"Then once we get to draft day and you get into the 20s, now all of a sudden there's players there that the general managers didn't think were going to be there. So if they go from, hey, we want to move back, there's not going to be any there we like, nah, we're not going to take your deal because we're going to take our players. It can definitely become stressful from that standpoint because you thought you'd be able to get up and now all of a sudden these teams are staying and they're not willing to move back. That's when it really gets stressful, like you thought you're going to have an opportunity to make a deal for a week or so because these teams are clamoring to get out of the first round and back into 34, and then now suddenly the phone's getting hung up, nobody's making a deal, and you're on to the next team."

As the picks started flying off the board, the head coach had a question for the general manager in the draft room.

Daboll: Where are you at?

Schoen: I mean, we can get it done in two picks with Denver. I'm just trying to see if we wait, try to get as much information as we can. Pittsburgh is a quarterback-needy team, but they're looking to move back, too. Nobody is going to remember a third-round pick if you're right.

Daboll: (nods).

Schoen: You guys are convicted in him. You believe in him. We did the process. He checked all the boxes. Let's f------ roll the dice, roll the dice.

Schoen ultimately found a trade partner with Texans general manager Nick Caserio. The Giants received the 25^th pick from Houston in exchange for their 34^th and 99^th selections and a 2026 third-round choice.

The Giants then submitted their pick: Jaxson Dart, Quarterback, Mississippi.

"When we got the yes from Houston, we were all ecstatic," Schoen said. "We were able to finally get our guy that we had identified late in (round) one that we'd be willing to trade up for, couple that with getting Abdul Carter at number three. It was a sense of relief because it was pretty stressful in the draft room there from about 20-ish on, until we were able to finally get a deal done with Houston. So, ecstatic, offensive coaches were happy, defensive coaches were happy, personnel staff was happy. We left night one with everybody was happy and slept well."

It was much needed.

"It's really hard because when you're trying to come up with what are other teams going to do, you assume everybody has their boards like yours, everybody sees it like you see, and that's definitely not the case," Schoen said. "So, you like a player, you assume that everybody else likes him, or these other teams that, say, with Jaxson that were in the market for a quarterback, they probably like him as much as we do. But you don't know that. You're going through and you can just say, hey, these teams need, if it's a quarterback in Jaxson's case, who all needs a quarterback, where do we think we would need to go in order to get up and draft him?

"Those conversations are ongoing and you hear, hey, so and so talked to this team, or so and so talked to this team. At some point, you almost get too much information and it can be paralysis by analysis. As the draft gets closer, I really make my inner circle a little bit smaller so there's not a lot of voices around and my leadership group did a great job of identifying where they thought the landing point was or entry point into the first round where we'd be able to get Jaxson and not give up pick 65."

But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how you acquired your franchise quarterback as long as he becomes just that.

"Specifically, if it's a quarterback and you're weighing what do you want to give up to take the player, it's a quarterback. So, if you're right, a lot of times it really doesn't matter what you give up," Schoen said. "So, probably trying to thread the needle where, hey, we could still get Jaxson Dart and have as much draft capital as possible to continue to build the team. That's what I was constantly weighing with my staff, and we're going round and round, and there was really no right answer. Like are we going to be disappointed if we thread the needle and he's gone, and we could have gave up pick 65 and had him. At the end of the day, just all the research we did, pro department does a great job. They put together draft books on teams' needs and visits and private workouts and all that stuff, plus our college staff having friends around the league. We took all the information we had, and through that information, we were comfortable waiting until we did in terms of coming back into the first round."

Thus, the Giants can file this story under Ole Miss quarterbacks they had a conviction on and traded up to get.