{"id":209383,"date":"2026-04-25T11:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/209383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:37:07","slug":"giants-trade-up-pick-of-malachi-fields-met-with-intense-mixed-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/209383\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants&#8217; trade up, pick of Malachi Fields met with intense mixed reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 25, 2026, 7:03 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With the 74th pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-york-giants\/351\" data-autotag=\"9402befb-12da-4b26-905a-81ab1fea0850\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New York Giants<\/a> selected wide receiver Malachi Fields out of Notre Dame. The Giants, of course, did not have a third-round pick, so they traded with the Cleveland Browns to land Fields.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Giants had a strong opening two rounds of the draft but entered Day 2 without a third-round selection after trading the pick away last year to move up and select quarterback Jaxson Dart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The team had been rumored to be looking for another weapon for Dart ahead of the second day of the draft, and they did just that by selecting Fields.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_gl gnt_em__el\" href=\"http:\/\/giantswire.usatoday.com\/picture-gallery\/sports\/nfl\/giants\/2026\/02\/16\/new-york-giants-2026-opponents\/88699425007\/\" data-t-l=\"\u2691g:l|l|c|view gallery:inline promo\" aria-label=\"View Gallery - New York Giants&#039; 2026 opponents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"gnt_em_gl_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777117027_848_86155229007-usatsi-27083430.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"372\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Fields, a 6-foot-4, 218-pound receiver, caught 36 passes for 630 yards and five touchdowns in 2025. Over his college career at Virginia and Notre Dame, he totaled 165 receptions for 2,479 yards and 16 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While the Giants certainly needed to bolster their wide receiver corps, they prioritized other positions with their first three picks. The decision to trade up for Fields has drawn mixed reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777117027_169_86373428007-square-1.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 25, 2026, 7:03 a.m. ET With the 74th pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the New York&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,1941,1942,27744,948,950,930,932,3712,947,691,6568,949,682],"class_list":{"0":"post-209383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-sstssportsnflgiants","13":"tag-sstsngiants","14":"tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","15":"tag-tagamerican-football","16":"tag-tagnational-sports","17":"tag-tagnew-york-giants","18":"tag-tagnfl","19":"tag-tagnfl-draft","20":"tag-tagnfl-hub","21":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","22":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209383","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=209383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}