Better late than never: Thoughts on the Giants 2026 draft … We have had a number of queries from our Giants’ fans friends wondering what we thought about this year’s draft so here we go. We did comment at the end of the first round that our initial reaction to the selection of Arvell Reese and Sisi Mauigoa was kind ‘meh!’ No question the Giants got two really good players – they were always going to get two really good players – but was there enough sizzle adding a LB and a OG. But then we looked at each guy individually and it we really did begin to sense the sizzle!
It probably goes without saying that the Giants were probably more than a little disappointed that Jeremiyah Love, the consensus top-rated non QB in this draft, didn’t make it to the 5th pick, but the truth is that if Love was indeed #1 overall then Reese was probably #1a. And while he is nominally a LB, he’s just such a versatile defender in that he’s both a solid enough off-ball LB as well as being an excellent pass rusher that he has the potential to become a real weapon on that side of the ball. There is a little bit of an issue in that like Abdul Carter he’s not all that big and, again like Carter, is something of a non-traditional player such that the Giants will need to run something of a non-traditional defence in which they move those guys around and have opposing QBs and offensive lines guessing who’s coming and from where on any given play. But for Giants fans still bemoaning the fact that the Giants missed out on Micah Parsons a few years back, they now have not one, but two guys in Reese and Carter who can be just as disruptive as Parsons. Now they just have to find ways to exploit them that way! (See below!)
At the same time, throughout the draft process we would look at a lineman like Mauigoa and think ‘boy, he’d be a such nice addition to the OL’ which clearly needs some young legs. The question, though was did you really want to use a top 5 pick on a non-impact position. Getting him at #10, though, especially after getting a potential impact star in Reese feels like a bonus. Indeed, the word we think about when we think about Mauigoa is ANCHOR! And lord knows this OL has lacked a true anchor in the Chris Snee-Quenton Nelson vein, well since Snee retired. He’s a rugged plug and play type who plays with an attitude that we never saw from Evan Neal or Ereck Flowers. Now, the Giants did have to pass on Caleb Downs to take Mauigoa, but Downs always felt like a bit of a luxury pick, but I suspect that Mauigoa and luxury are words we’ll never use in the same sentence ever again!
Of course, there’s one important qualifier when evaluating the Mauigoa pick and that’s the fact that the Giants don’t get to make the pick without having traded Dexter Lawrence, one of their core players, to Cincinnati prior to the draft. And normally we aren’t all that keen on the idea of trading good players for picks as the trading team seldom gets much of anything close to the value of the proven veteran they have moved. However, there’s a good chance that this deal could be the exception as Mauigoa has a legitimate shot at being a pretty good player in his own right.
The Giants then got a third top 20 quality prospect at a position of need when they took CB Colton Hood early in the 2nd round. However, in sticking with their board to take Hood, they had to pass on WR Denzel Boston, a big receiver to pair with Malik Nabers which very well may have been their #1 priority heading into the draft, but made a bold move by trading up for 6-4, 220-pound Malachi Fields in the middle of the third round. Fields did come at a cost – two picks including a 2027 4th rounder – but he was likely the only WR left on the board who had gotten at least some first-round consideration during the draft process. And its going to be fun watching opponents this fall getting the corners to match up properly with the Nabers-Fields duo.
Needless to say we had quite until the Giants got back on the clock early in the 6th round, but in our view the wait was worth it as the they were able to add three more value prospects in G/T JC Davis, NT Bobby Jamison-Travis and LB/ER Jack Kelly . In fact, G/T JC Davis may have been our fave Giants pick in the entire draft as we regularly had him going to the Giants in the 4th or 5th rounds when preparing team mocks. He was a first-team all-conference LT in the Big 10 with good size and length (34-inch arms) and decent athleticism who gives a good effort, but does need to be more consistent technically. He’s also a versatile guy who like Mauigoa may also end up playing inside at the next level; in fact, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Giants eventually give him some snaps at C. Certainly, though, the Giants somewhat creaky, aging OL doesn’t doesn’t look quite as creaky with Mauigoa and Davis joining Andrew Thomas and Marcus Mbow.
Meanwhile, Jamison-Travis wasn’t necessarily that highly rated because he doesn’t make many splash plays, but he is what he is and that’s a prototype blue collar, lunchbucket, run-stuffing nose tackle who plays hard and is going to tie up blockers up front to allow the playmakers on D to run to the ball and make their plays.
Meanwhile, the addition of LB Kelly may be the most telling of all the Giants picks. While nominally a LB, Kelly makes a living camped out in opposing backfields where he had 10 sacks last season. In fact, stylistically he’s very similar to Reese in that regard. And when asked how the Giants would deal with the fact that a number of their top disruptors on defence weren’t necessarily all that big, John Harbaugh said that the plan was to move them around, get them in gaps, beat the offence to the point of attack. Which if true would be a sea change from the defence we’ve been watching the past few years which was about as vanilla, conservative, predictable read-and-react, and don’t give up the big play as is possible.
Bottom line: The Giants had a really good draft; maybe one of their best ever. It was also one of the top 2-3 drafts in the league this year with four guys who will be given every chance to start and at least a couple of others who should see plenty of rotational snaps. Indeed, even with the loss of Lawrence factored in, I don’t see any other team that actually may have gotten better more than the Giants the past few days. Of course, the young players now have to come in and prove they can play, not to mention stay healthy, but on balance a very nice start to the Harbaugh era!
