{"id":207922,"date":"2026-04-24T01:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207922\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T01:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:17:09","slug":"ohio-states-arvell-reese-selected-by-new-york-giants-with-no-5-pick-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207922\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State\u2019s Arvell Reese selected by New York Giants with No. 5 pick in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage<\/a> of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The New York Giants made Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese the No. 5 pick of the first round in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Reese doesn\u2019t have as much experience as the rest of Ohio State\u2019s first-round talent, but in his one year as a full-time starter, he made an enormous impact, showing off his elite athleticism and freakish pass rush moves as a hybrid linebacker and edge rusher.<\/p>\n

In his first year as a starter, Reese tallied 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks and was at the forefront of Ohio State\u2019s defensive game plan under coordinator Matt Patricia. He jumped onto the scene in Week 1 with nine tackles and one sack in a win against Texas. He seemed to make at least one play a game the rest of the way that made a highlight reel or went viral on social media.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-4, 241-pound Reese, who ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash, is the perfect example of film over statistical production because everything he did on film had coaches around the country raving about him, even if his numbers didn\u2019t jump off the page each week.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Beast\u2019 breakdown<\/p>\n

Reese ranked No. 1 on Dane Brugler\u2019s top 300 big board<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Brugler had to say about him in his annual NFL Draft guide<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is explosive from his spot and has exceptional closing burst to cover ground in a blink. He can create short corners as a rusher, but will need time to become more of a pass-rush technician in terms of setting up and sequencing different moves. He uses his length to anchor as an edge setter and skillfully deconstructs blocks with elusive movements or violent, well-timed hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaching intel<\/p>\n

What an anonymous offensive coach had to say about Reese in Bruce Feldman\u2019s mock draft<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked him to do a ton, and he\u2019s elite at everything that they asked him to do. He\u2019s playing stack linebacker better than the guy who only plays stack linebacker, and then he goes to edge and rushes the passer better than the guys who only have to rush the passer. He\u2019s setting the edge and is just as good as guys who are 40 pounds heavier than him. Then, he\u2019s covering just as well as the nickel and Caleb Downs are covering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Dochterman grades the pick<\/p>\n

The Giants can\u2019t believe their luck. Reese has the most upside of any defensive player, and he\u2019s versatile and explosive. When you combine him with Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and perhaps Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Giants now have a ferocious pass rush. And as we saw a generation ago, that recipe makes Super Bowl jambalaya.<\/p>\n

Reese conjures up comparisons with former Penn State (and current Green Bay Packers) pass rusher Micah Parsons and rightly so. Both were lethal pass-rushing linebackers in college and projected as edge defenders in the NFL. In his first season as a starter, Reese was a consensus first-team All-American and racked up 6.5 sacks, 10 tackles for loss and 69 total tackles. Grade: A+<\/p>\n

Mike Sando\u2019s assessment<\/p>\n

Some thought the Giants might not take an edge rusher because they already have invested in the position. But an exec I spoke with this morning said if Reese is there, the Giants will take him, because they can play him all over the field. Word on the street was that Reese was the Giants\u2019 top choice at five, with Sonny Styles and Jeremiyah Love next. If that\u2019s true, then the Giants got their guy. Reese is talented, but is seen as more of a designed pass-rusher than as an all-around player.<\/p>\n

How he fits<\/p>\n

Reese was the No. 1 player in Dane Brugler\u2019s rankings. That type of talent fits on any team.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see the Giants\u2019 immediate plans for Reese, as they\u2019ll need to be creative to get him on the field with Burns, Carter and Thibodeaux. The Reese selection makes Thibodeaux, who has been on the trade block all offseason, more expendable.<\/p>\n

Reese\u2019s versatility will give defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson options. The 6-4, 241-pounder can play off-ball linebacker and on the edge. Reese\u2019s long-term home will be determined by how he adjusts to the NFL. \u2014 Dan Duggan<\/p>\n

Depth-chart impact<\/p>\n

Reese should start at inside linebacker on early downs. That will bump Micah McFadden into a sub role, which upgrades the Giants\u2019 linebacker depth. On passing downs, the Giants can move Reese around. He can line up on the edge opposite Burns with Carter moving inside, as he did at times last season. Or Burns and Carter can stay on the edge with Reese rushing from an inside linebacker spot. The possibilities are endless as Wilson has a diverse group of edge rushers at his disposal. \u2014 Duggan<\/p>\n

They also could have picked \u2026<\/p>\n

The way the first four picks unfolded, the Giants had their choice of three studs from Ohio State\u2019s dominant defense. They went with Reese over inside linebacker Sonny Styles and safety Caleb Downs. Clearly, the Giants viewed Reese as the best player from that group. If the Giants wanted an offensive player, they may have targeted Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson. Trading back may have been the most tempting option, as the Browns dealt the sixth pick to the Chiefs for the ninth pick, a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick. \u2014 Duggan<\/p>\n

Fast evaluation<\/p>\n

This is the third time in the past five years that the Giants have used a top-five pick on an edge rusher, following Thibodeaux with the fifth pick in 2022 and Carter with the third pick in 2025. That\u2019s in addition to trading second- and fifth-round picks for Brian Burns and then giving him a five-year, $141 million extension. That\u2019s a lot invested in the pass rush, which needs to be the strength of a defense that lost nose tackle Dexter Lawrence from the middle of the defensive line in a trade last week. \u2014 Duggan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 NFL Draft. The New York Giants made Ohio State linebacker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,2683,11,10,49,51,50,22,7460],"class_list":{"0":"post-207922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-giants","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}