Improving Giants cornerback position will be no easy task

If finding a franchise quarterback is the Giants’ No.1 offseason priority, upgrading at cornerback should be considered No.

1A. What makes the medical evaluation component of next week’s NFL Combine so crucial for the Giants is that the prospects atop the 2025 cornerback draft class could be mistaken for the patients in an orthopedist’s waiting room. After general manager Joe Schoen emphasized clean injury histories and a track record of availability in roster building last offseason, he isn’t going to like what he sees if he plans to draft a long-term running mate for Deonte Banks and slot corner Dru Phillips with his second-round pick (or on a trade up from No.34 into the back of the first round). Though Colorado cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter is a clean prospect with unanimous top-four projections, Michigan’s Will Johnson missed the final seven games of last season with turf toe.

Johnson — who widely is expected to be a top-12 pick, anyway — previously had knee surgery that sidelined him for the first three games in 2023. Among the targets that might fall within striking range for the Giants … Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison missed the final 10 games after undergoing hip surgery, East Carolina’s Shavon Revel Jr.missed the final 10 games after tearing his ACL during practice, and Kentucky’s Maxwell Hairston missed five consecutive games with a shoulder injury that reportedly required hospitalization. “A lot of the cornerbacks who had a lot of the preseason hype were hurt, so you just don’t know,” ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid told The Post.

“The one who has really risen up the board is Azareye’h Thomas from Florida State.Thomas has the potential [to develop into a No.

1 cornerback] because he is an athletic freak and, I think, the best press-man corner.He’s only 20 years old, so he has youth working on his side.” In today’s pass-first NFL, needing a franchise quarterback and a No.

1 cornerback is a precarious pl...