The Giants picked up the 10th pick in the draft by trading defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals last weekend and they used that pick to bolster the other side of the ball.
Offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa was the team’s choice and they made that call despite Mauigoa having a disc issue in his back that required him to return to Indianapolis for a second medical check this month. Word was that doctors found Mauigoa does not need immediate surgery and General Manager Joe Schoen confirmed that Mauigoa is “good right now.”
Schoen also noted that the team’s new trainer Adam Bennett worked with Mauigoa at Miami and that relationship helped pave the way for Thursday’s pick.
“We’re comfortable with it,” Schoen said, via a transcript from the team. “We’re fortunate that the former trainer from the University of Miami is now one of our trainers. So we have somebody that’s been with him for his entire time at Miami, and lived with him through the process. It was an injury that occurred in the Texas A & M game, and we were certainly comfortable with it.”
Schoen said that the team plans to start Mauigoa at guard with Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor at tackle. Mauigoa said he’s ready to fit in anywhere the Giants want him to play and all involved will be hoping for a long, healthy run in any spot up front.
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The months leading into the draft feature countless mock drafts that set expectations about where players will wind up once the actual event gets underway, but every year provides reminders that the real thing takes twists few people see coming.
On Thursday night, one of those twists involved Arvell Reese. He was seen as a possible choice at No. 2, but wound up being on the board for the Giants at No. 5 and their General Manager Joe Schoen said in a press conference that “there weren’t a lot of scenarios that we went through where they were going to be available” because he was the top non-quarterback on their board.
Reese will now have to find his role in the Giants’ defense. He mostly played off-ball linebacker at Ohio State, but showed ability as an edge rusher and Reese said after the draft that most teams he spoke to saw him filling that role. The Giants plan to play him as an inside linebacker with designs on moving him and other defensive pieces around as they see fit.
“They told me how they would use me. From that I just say I’m going to be used in a unique way. I’m a weapon. That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Reese said, via a transcript from the team.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh confirmed that the Giants don’t intend to trade Kayvon Thibodeaux, who is part of an edge rushing group with Brian Burns and Abdul Carter. Reese said it “sounds like a great situation playing alongside those guys” and the Giants hope the payoff is a major jump in the standings during Harbaugh’s first season with the team.
The Giants got their defensive player at pick No. 5, taking Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese. They got their offensive player at No. 10.
The Giants selected University of Miami offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa.
It marks the third time in six years the Giants have had two first-round picks.
The Giants re-signed veteran right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, who is coming off the best year of his career with a single-season best 1,088 offensive snaps. The Giants could move Mauigoa to guard, where they have a bigger need.
Greg Van Roten, who started at right guard the past two seasons, remains a free agent. Left guard Jon Runyan Jr. is in the final year of his contract.
Mauigoa will start somewhere in 2026, and he had a message for quarterback Jaxson Dart.
“I am ready to die for you,” Mauigoa said after donning a Giants cap.
The Giants made Arvell Reese the fifth overall pick in the draft on Thursday night, but the addition of another edge rusher reportedly hasn’t changed their view of trading Kayvon Thibodeaux.
A report this week indicated that the Giants were unlikely to deal the 2022 first-round pick and Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that they don’t intend to move him despite adding Reese to a group that also includes Brian Burns and 2025 first-rounder Abdul Carter.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh said he looks forward to seeing Thibodeaux in the defense, but added that everybody’s tradable when asked about chatter concerning the edge rusher.
That means that the door is probably still open for someone to change the Giants’ minds about moving on from Thibodeaux and we’ll see if anything develops over the coming days and weeks.
The Giants have two picks in the top 10 of tonight’s NFL draft.
When their turn came to select No. 5, the Giants had their choice of a trio of Ohio State players. They selected linebacker Arvell Reese, taking him over his teammates, safety Caleb Downs and linebacker Sonny Styles.
The Giants have received trade interest regarding edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, and the selection of Reese makes that a possibility. Thibodeaux was the fifth overall pick in 2022, and the Giants selected edge rusher Abdul Carter third in 2025.
Their defense should be even better than it was in 2025 with the addition of Reese, who totaled 69 tackles, 10 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss last season, his third at Ohio State.
He was a consensus All-American and Big Ten linebacker of the year.
All of the talk about the Jets’ plans for the second overall pick heading into the draft centered on whether they would take David Bailey or Arvell Reese to bolster their defense.
The answer to their edge rusher question finally came on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. The Jets made Bailey their choice shortly after the Raiders made it official with Fernando Mendoza.
Bailey led the nation with 14.5 sacks for Texas Tech during the 2025 season and the Jets’ level of interest in him became a talking point over the last week because the team canceled a visit with him during the pre-draft process. They had other interactions over the last few months, however, and Jets General Manager Darren Mougey obviously saw enough to make Bailey the man.
The Jets also have the No. 16 pick, so they’ll be heard from again on Thursday night.
At long last, we’ll find out where the 2026 NFL draftees are headed, starting tomorrow night with the first round.
One player who likely won’t have to wait very long to hear his name called is running back Jeremiyah Love.
Considered by some to be the best player in this year’s class, Love appears certain to be a top-10 pick, and could even go within the top five.
Where will he go? He’s not sure, but he’s aware of the candidates.
“I have no idea where I’m going, but there’s a lot of talk of me going to the Titans, Cardinals, Giants,” Love said Wednesday, via Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com. “Honestly, I’d be blessed to go anywhere.
“Whatever team I go to, I’mma make them better.”
Love, who turns 21 at the end of May, rushed for 1,372 yards with 18 touchdowns and caught 27 passes for 280 yards with three TDs in 12 games for Notre Dame in 2025.
Offensive lineman Shane Lemieux has announced his retirement.
Lemieux made the announcement in a post to his LinkedIn account. Lemieux wrote that he dreamed of spending at least a decade in the NFL when the Giants drafted him in the fifth round in 2020, but “five surgeries and more time in the training room than on the field” led to his decision to walk away from the game.
Lemieux played 12 games and made nine starts at guard as a rookie, but only played in six games over his final three seasons with the NFC East club. Knee, toe and biceps injuries contributed to his extended absences from the lineup.
Lemieux moved on to play seven games and make four starts for the Saints in 2024 and spent last season on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
The Giants thinned out their defensive line by trading Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals and they have spent some time with a possible addition to the group.
The NFL’s transaction report of Tuesday shows that the Giants reported a visit with veteran free agent defensive lineman Benito Jones.
Jones spent the last two seasons with the Dolphins and started in 23 of his 31 appearances for Miami. He had 39 tackles and a sack in that action.
Jones entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with Miami in 2020 and played six games as a rookie before spending 2021 on the practice squad. He was claimed off of waivers by the Lions in 2022 and had 42 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 34 games for Detroit.
Not that long ago, some media and fans would gnash their teeth and/or clutch their pearls at the notion that NFL players were acquiring the kind of power NBA players have.
Don’t look now, but NFL players are slowly but surely getting there.
The recent Dexter Lawrence trade from the Giants to the Bengals is the latest example of it. Lawrence, a “middle stone” player for the New York defense, wasn’t happy. He wanted out. He asked to be traded. Within two weeks, he was.
It’s a far cry from the days when the prevailing view among NFL teams was to not flinch when a player wasn’t happy. Instead, teams dug in. And some in the media (along with plenty of fans) would lead the cheers. “Honor your contract” was the mantra — even if NFL contracts are not true bilateral deals. The team can move on whenever it wants; the player cannot.
Now, maybe the players can get out. Because an unhappy player becomes a problem for the team.
The Giants knew Lawrence wasn’t happy. It wasn’t a sudden thing. They’ve been to the playoffs once in his career. They’ve gone 13-38 over the last three seasons.
Meanwhile, Lawrence had seen multiple former teammates go elsewhere and win — big. From Saquon Barkley to Leonard Williams to Julian Love, Lawrence has watched multiple teammates exit New York and win a Super Bowl ring with another team. (Hell, even failed Giants first-rounder Kadarius Toney won not one but two Super Bowls with the Chiefs.)
And so Lawrence wanted out. The Giants realized their choices were to deal with an unhappy player or flip his contract for a fresh start with a brand-new player who (at least for the first few years of his career) will be all in. Especially if the Giants choose wisely.
When former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin first uttered one of the best of his catch phrases — “we want volunteers, not hostages” — the sentiment had broad and potentially problematic application. If a player doesn’t want to be here, we don’t want him. That’s a blank check for a one-way ticket out of town, whenever the player wants to hop on that bus.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when the knee-jerk reaction to a player who tried to exit before his contract expired was to play hardball. To resist the player’s prerogative. To refrain from setting a “precedent” that others could be tempted to utilize.
The showdown between the Eagles and Terrell Owens from 2005 arose directly from the team’s refusal either to address his contract or to trade him to a new team after he had a stellar debut season in Philadelphia.
In the end, the Eagles “won” the battle of wills. But what did they really win? The 2005 season was undermined by the constant distractions that Owens created in an effort to get what he wanted.
Owens was, in hindsight, a trailblazer. He showed what can happen when a team chooses to stubbornly cling to a contract that applies unequal standards to the two parties. If the player isn’t playing well enough, the team cuts him. If he’s playing better than expected, too bad. You signed a contract.
The most encouraging fact is that Lawrence was able to get what he wanted without it becoming a bigger deal than it needed to be. To the point where the successful exercise of power by the player wasn’t even a major headline.
We want volunteers, not hostages. The teams that embrace this message are more likely to accumulate and maintain a locker room full of willing participants. They’ll be more likely to create an environment that will cause the best players to continue to be fully engaged.
It’s an important point to keep in mind during draft week, when all teams will emerge with a new class of de facto hostages who have been conditioned (or, more accurately, brainwashed) into thinking it’s an honor to be told where they’ll live and work, regardless of their preferences. From the moment they show up in the building for the first time, the challenge becomes getting them to want to stay for as long as the team considers them to be worthy of roster spots.
Ultimately, all players will leave. It’s always better, from the perspective of the employer, for the teams to be able to decide when it’s time to end the relationship. The best way to get there is to ensure that the players will want to stick around even after the team has decided that it’s in the organization’s best interests to move on.
