Forget the draft.

ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper believes the Giants should be willing to send the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to the Vikings for injured rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

Acquiring McCarthy, the No. 10 pick in last year’s draft, would mean pᴀssing on this year’s top quarterback prospects in Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Miami’s Cam Ward and possibly Penn State’s Drew Allar, who could change course and enter the draft after a strong College Football Playoff showing.

“J.J. McCarthy is a year younger than Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, he’s coming off the (knee) injury, but he’s a kid, if you look at his grade last year compared to the grades this year of the quarterbacks, he would be the No. 1 guy, he would be ahead of Drew Allar, he would be ahead of certainly Cam and Shedeur,” Kiper said on ESPN’s “Unsportsmanlike” on Thursday.

That the Giants could potentially seek a trade to find their franchise quarterback is a reflection of the lukewarm view of this year’s draft class.

There are varying views on Sanders, Ward and even Allar, who previously said he’s returning to Happy Valley but has since seen his stock rise with two playoff wins.

Just because Sanders and Ward are the best signal-callers in this year’s class doesn’t necessarily mean they are franchise quarterbacks and reaching for one of them — think Daniel Jones — could set a team back.

It’s hard to say whether every team ranks McCarthy, 21, higher than any of this year’s quarterbacks, but Kiper is not the first pundit to say last year’s crop outranked this year’s crew.

There’s also the reality that should Allar stay in school, the Giants may not have the option to draft both Ward and Sanders since the тιтans (No. 1) and Browns (No. 2) both need quarterbacks.

There could be a third quarterback the Giants absolutely fall in love with but, as of early January, that player seemingly is not being discussed nationally as a top-five pick.

Even if the Giants like McCarthy more than this year’s class, though, there are a few factors that could potentially derail any potential trade.

First and foremost, the Giants had a chance to draft McCarthy last year and pᴀssed.

Now, it’s certainly possible the Giants had receiver Malik Nabers rated as a better player.

But logic says a quarterback is more vital than a receiver, and as long as McCarthy’s grade was in the same ballpark as Nabers’, a team should always draft the quarterback.

The next potential bugaboo is whether the Vikings want to trade McCarthy.

McCarthy, who led Michigan to the national тιтle last season, did not play a snap this season after tearing his meniscus and recently underwent a second surgery.

In his absence, former Jets bust Sam Darnold has flourished.

And this is where it becomes tricky.

The Vikings clearly saw McCarthy as a franchise quarterback by selecting him No. 10 overall last April, but Darnold instead delivered and has looked the part.

It would be a tough sell to a fan base to let Darnold walk in free agency after leading Minnesota to the playoffs with a 14-3 record and turn over the reins to a player coming off an injury.

While some analysts loved McCarthy, his college stats did not jump off the page.

Kiper is in the camp that the Vikings may not truly know what they want to do until their season concludes, which could be as early as Monday when they visit the Rams.

Darnold raised some flags with his showing in Week 18 when he looked like he had seen ghosts again in a disastrous performance against the Lions that cost Minnesota the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

“(The Vikings) only having a first and two fifths (picks), may say, ‘Hey, we can get three draft picks for J.J. McCarthy, maybe let’s do it,’ ᴀssuming Sam plays really well in the playoffs,” Kiper said. “If he doesn’t, then obviously they’re keeping J.J. and letting it play out that way. Franchise him, keep J.J., move on from there, see how it plays out. I think J.J. McCarthy situation is going to be really interesting to see what happens there: do they keep him or do they trade him?”

He added: “I think this playoff situation coming up for Minnesota will determine everything about how they handle that quarterback situation.”