• Giants, Pick 5: Arvell Reese, LB/EDGE, Ohio State: Reese is a versatile defender who lined up in a variety of positions in Ohio State's loaded defense. He played off-ball linebacker, on the edge, and he often lined up in something of a Joker role on obvious passing downs. In addition to his ability to play a number of different roles, Reese has elite athleticism. He ran a 4.46 at 6'4, 241 pounds, and that explosiveness shows up on the field.

Ultimately, the reason Reese was a top-five prospect was because of his upside as a pass rusher, where the Giants are already flush with past high draft picks:

1. Brian Burns, 16th overall pick, 2019 (acquired via trade with Carolina)
2. Kayvon Thibodeaux, 5th overall pick, 2022
3. Abdul Carter, 3rd overall pick, 2025

It will be interesting to see how the Giants deploy Reese. The guess here is that he'll play off-ball linebacker initially, while the team tries to develop him on the side as a pass rusher, much like the Eagles attempted to do with Jihaad Campbell as a rookie last season. That's easier said than done.

But certainly, the Giants already have a bunch of talented, athletic defenders — which will happen when you pick in the top 6 most years — and they added another one.

• Giants, Pick 10: Francis Mauigoa, OT, Miami: Mauigoa was regarded by many as the best offensive tackle prospect in this draft. (I didn't really see it that way.)

He is a mauler with a mean streak who can anchor all day against power rushers, but he could ultimately struggle with speed rushers. He is, in my opinion, suited to playing at guard. 

And oh hey, that's probably where he'll play for the Giants, who have a LT in place in Andrew Thomas and a RT in Jermaine Eluemunor, who signed a three-year deal worth $39 million this offseason.

Mauigoa has a chance to be a really good guard in the NFL, but I do wonder if the Giants wouldn't have been better served just picking an already great guard in Penn State's Olaivavega Ioane. Mauigoa does give the Giants options down the road if they want to move him to tackle in a few years. We'll see.

One thing to note about selecting guards in the first round is that the NFL doesn't discern between centers, guards, and tackles when determining the cost to exercise fifth-year options or franchise tags. They're all lumped together under the umbrella of "offensive linemen." In other words, if you draft a guard in the first round, you're going to pay offensive tackle prices for him down the line. Commanders fans can tell you about how that all works, as they went through it once upon a time with Brandon Scherff, a college tackle who moved to guard in the pros who was selected with the fifth overall pick. Scherff had his fifth-year option exercised and was tagged twice at exorbitant prices during his tenure in Washington, before he eventually left in free agency to play for the Jaguars.

Still, it's rarely a bad idea to fortify the offensive line, which has long been a major Giants weakness. Mauigoa is a logical fit and a reasonable value in this draft at pick 10, although personally I'd have just taken Caleb Downs.

• Pick 37: Colton Hood, CB, Tennessee: Hood is the nephew of former Eagles CB Roderick Hood. He originally enrolled at Auburn, where his uncle went, before transferring to Colorado, and then again to Tennessee. He had a great start to the 2025 season, with a pick-six and an SEC-leading 6 pass breakups in the first 6 games. However, thereafter he had 0 INTs and just 2 pass breakups the rest of the season. Highlight reel:

He's a sub-six foot corner with decent speed, but certainly not elite athleticism: 

Hood is a confident, sticky corner, and a good tackler, but he lacks ball skill production, with just 3 career INTs in college.

A lot of people thought Hood would be a first-round pick, so he has been widely regarded as a good value early in Round 2. In any normal draft, he's a mid-Round 2 guy, in my opinion. He'll replace 2023 first-round pick Deonte Banks, who has been a bust.

On a side note, I think the Giants may have gotten sniped with this pick. At pick 36, the Texans traded up ahead of the Giants and selected Ohio State DT Kayden McDonald. The Texans likely feared the Giants would select McDonald since they traded Lawrence. I don't know if the Giants would have taken McDonald if he had made it to pick 37, but if they had landed him I'd have liked that pick a lot more than the selection of Hood.

• Pick 74, Malachi Fields, WR, Notre Dame: Fields is a slow (4.61), big-bodied receiver whose game is contested catches down the field or in the red zone. He'll also post up in the open areas of zone coverage to move the sticks.

Fields had modest production at Notre Dame.

The concern with those types of receivers is that NFL corners are way better at playing contested catches than your typical college corner. Personally, this profile of receiver just isn't my jam, but, we'll see. Most draft analysts had him rated as a borderline second/third round pick, so if they're to be believed the Giants got a decent enough value at 74.

• Pick 186: Bobby Jamison-Travis, DT, Auburn: The Giants have nothing on the interior of their defensive line, and they didn't address it until the sixth round. I certainly wouldn't advocate for reaching for a need earlier in the draft if the value isn't there, but they have a massive hole nevertheless.

They did ultimately reach for Jamison-Travis, a player rated by Lance Zierlein and Dane Brugler as an undrafted free agent.

• Pick 192: J.C. Davis, OT, Illinois: Davis had a great season in 2025, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors at offensive tackle, ahead of other more highly rated prospects like Northwestern's Caleb Tierney and Iowa's Gennings Dunker. He started 49 games in college, so he has good experience. He's a little undersized at 6'4, and might move to guard in the pros, but I have no problem with drafting a good offensive lineman in the sixth round. Good pick.

• Pick 193: Jack Kelly, LB, BYU: Kelly had 16.5 combined sacks and 5 forced fumbles in his last two seasons at Weber State (2022/2023), and then 15 combined sacks and 4 forced fumbles in his two seasons at BYU (2024/2025). Obviously, that's very good production. He's an an excellent blitzing linebacker with a little something to work with on the edge, but with concerns about his coverage ability. Good athlete. 

Kelly can be a sub-package player who gets after the quarterback, and he should also be an immediate contributor on special teams. Nice value pick in the sixth round.

Overall

A few days before the draft even began, the Giants traded Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals for the 10th overall pick, a move that was widely hailed as a steal. Although I do agree that it was the right move for the Giants, they did take one of their rare positions of strength and turned it into a glaring weakness. Lawrence is the best NT in the sport, and in the aftermath of the draft, the Giants signed a couple of street free agents in Shelby Harris and Leki Fotu. The Giants were already the second-worst run defense in the NFL in 2025, and they traded their best run defender. That's likely to leave a mark on their defense in 2026.

With their two first-round picks, the Giants got a pair of good prospects. Because, I mean, of course they did. They draft a highly rated prospect every year because they're always picking at the top of the draft! But ultimately, they selected an off-ball linebacker at 5 and a guard at 10. That's not exactly good positional value. Maybe the off-ball linebacker will turn into a good edge rusher and maybe the guard will eventually return to his college position at tackle, but in both cases they're almost certainly going to start their NFL careers at lesser positions, relatively speaking.

And really, that was the nature of this draft. The top-tier players largely played non-premium positions. It was a bad year to have a top 10 pick, and the Giants had two of them. As long as they were taking players at non-premium positions, why not take Downs? He has a legitimate chance of being the best safety in the league, whereas Mauigoa's ceiling is probably a lot lower.

And then on Day 2, this is just personal preference, but if I'm taking a corner top 40 I'd like to see some INT and/or FF production. I also personally prefer receivers with explosive athletic traits, as opposed to bigger receivers who really only won in college because they could bully smaller guys. Neither Hood nor Fields were my kinds of players. That doesn't mean they won't have good careers. Just not my personal aesthetic preferences at their respective positions. I do like two of the three players they selected in the sixth round, as noted above.

I liked what the Giants did in free agency, and their draft was overwhelmingly praised. I was less impressed by their draft. Certainly, the players they selected will make them a better team. Buuuuut also, if you have two top-10 picks you're hoping you can land a couple of players who can transform your team. Walking away with an off-ball linebacker and a guard probably isn't going to do that. 

Grade: B

National view

As mentioned, the Giants' draft was widely praised.