Giants have one salivating possibility with Day 2 NFL Draft trade on table

Well, that was certainly an eventful and unpredictable Day 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft for the Giants, was it not?

That they selected a defensive player at No. 5 overall and an offensive player at No. 10 was no surprise at all. It always figured they probably would not double-up on one side of the ball.

That they had Arvell Reese ranked very highly was no surprise. That Reese was there at No. 5 pretty much shocked the Giants and made him an easy pick for them.

They thought they had a shot at Sisi Mauigoa — their top-ranked offensive lineman in this draft class — but could not be sure he would be there at 10. When he was, that was another easy pick for the Giants.

Here are some thoughts on what went down in Round 1 and what could be coming Friday night in Round 2:

— Yes, the Giants want more picks. This means there is a chance they trade out of where they are sitting in the second round — No. 37 overall — providing they can find a trade partner. There is no urgency to do so, though, as there are several intriguing options still on the board, players who went undrafted in the first round.

The Giants, as they were in the first round, are fifth in line, with the 49ers, Cardinals, Bills and Raiders ahead of them in Round 2. The players the Giants are likely thinking about are cornerbacks Avieon Terrell and Jermod McCoy (barring an issue with his knee) and wide receiver Denzel Boston.

After trading away nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, the second round was considered the sweet spot to try to find a replacement. It was somewhat of a surprise that Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald did not go in the first round and the Giants must be salivating about his name being on the board. They also cannot be confident he will get to them at 37.

Other options at defensive tackle are Christen Miller from Georgia and Lee Hunter from Texas Tech. The expectation is the Giants after the draft sign a veteran defensive tackle — D.J. Reader is closely tied to them.

It might be that the Giants stand pat and make a pick, based on their draft board and their needs on the depth chart. General manager Joe Schoen said he did get an offer to trade down from No. 10 and decided “it just didn’t make any sense to try to get cute and do anything else.’’

— The Giants were taken aback that so many draft prognosticators and media analysts considered Reese an edge player when in fact he played inside linebacker for most of his time at Ohio State. The majority of his snaps came off the ball, yet he was viewed as entering the NFL as an edge player, which at 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds, would make him undersized.

As an inside/weak side linebacker, Reese has great size, length, power and range. Add this athletic body –type to the player the Giants signed in free agency — Tremaine Edmunds at 6-foot-4 and 251 pounds – and the Giants all of a sudden have two massive bodies at linebacker in the middle of their defense. John Harbaugh is thrilled with that.

Stay up to date with the latest Giants picks, news, and updates at the 2026 NFL Draft.

— Now then, this does not mean Reese will not be an edge player, at times — perhaps lots of times. He was fairly new at it in 2025 and came away with 6.5 sacks.

“I got limited snaps at it, limited practice time and reps in practice at it,’’ Reese said. “A majority of time in practice I was inside ‘backer. They would send me down to do one-on-one reps later on in the week but it was never anything intentional with the pass rushing.’’

The Giants will throw Reese into a mix that includes Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux.

“He’s just scratching the surface,’’ Schoen said. “You see the size, the length, the traits. And again … just the versatility that the player has and how we can use him with some of the pieces that we already have. We’re not going to necessarily have to ask him to win off the edge, we’ve got guys that can do that. So we have a phenomenal defensive staff and they’re going to find creative ways to use him.’’

— The week before the draft Schoen verbalized the difficulty of knowing what is going to happen once the clock starts because “We always think … their board looks just like ours, you assume.’’ That is the key point in all this. Every team ranks and grades the draft-eligible players and the Giants’ rankings could look significantly different than the Cowboys, Eagles, Commanders … or Jets.

The Giants had Reese No. 2 on their entire board — only quarterback Fernando Mendoza was higher — and, clearly, the Jets did not. They took edge rusher David Bailey at No. 2. The Giants anticipated the Jets taking Reese and when they did not, it opened up a pathway for them for Reese to fall into their laps.

— Player evaluation knows no bounds. When studying Mauigoa, the Giants poured over practice tape to get an inside look at his practice habits and what they saw was revealing, considering the level of competition. Mauigoa on a daily basis went up against Rueben Bain Jr. and Ahkeem Mesidor, Miami’s two excellent edge rushers. How excellent? Bain in the first round Thursday night went No. 15 overall (to the Buccaneers) and Mesidor went No. 22 (to the Chargers). Those practice reps came at right tackle for Mauigoa. He will be a guard for the Giants as a rookie, where the right guard spot in the starting lineup awaits his arrival.