EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 The Giants are getting giant.<\/p>\n
After selecting cornerback Colton Hood with the No. 37 pick, the New York Giants traded with the Cleveland Browns to move into the third round to select Notre Dame wide receiver Malachi Fields. In exchange, the Giants sent their fourth- and fifth-round picks this year, along with a 2027 fourth-rounder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted the player, and we got him,\u201d coach John Harbaugh said, adding they had a second-round grade on Fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about how much you value him; it\u2019s about where can you get him,\u201d Harbaugh said when asked if they considered going after him earlier with the second-round pick. \u201c(General manager) Joe (Schoen) and the scouting department do a great job of analyzing all that stuff. Sometimes you\u2019re not right, but they kind of had it pegged in terms of where he was going to go in the order. That\u2019s probably why we got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, all four of the Giants\u2019 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft are at least 6 feet tall, bringing size and physicality to a new regime under Harbaugh.<\/p>\n
The emphasis on toughness is evident with the coaching change. Even No. 5 pick Arvell Reese associates Harbaugh\u2019s old Baltimore Ravens with a \u201cfast and violent\u201d style. Both Reese and No. 10 selection Francis Mauigoa bring that. Hood, who the Giants had at the top of their Day 2 board, also brings that element even with his 6-foot, 193-pound frame. The Athletic\u2019s draft expert, Dane Brugler, wrote that Hood \u201ccompetes with the physicality of a bigger and longer player.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the most recent addition (which the Giants gave up a lot for, and we\u2019ll get to the ramifications shortly) adds a much-needed playmaker for quarterback Jaxson Dart as he enters his second season in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou throw the ball to him, he\u2019s going to find a way to make the play around the defender,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cNot just \u2014 he\u2019s got reach. He can out-reach whoever\u2019s covering him. He\u2019s got great hands. He\u2019s a contested type of receiver. You\u2019ve seen those guys in the league for a lot of years make a lot of plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t hard to guess the Giants would add an offensive playmaker through the draft. The question was just when, after top running back Jeremiyah Love went No. 3 to the Arizona Cardinals. But the wide receivers room was in dire need of a boost. Not only did the Giants lose last season\u2019s leading receiver Wan\u2019Dale Robinson in free agency, but star receiver Malik Nabers won\u2019t be a sure thing to start the season as he recovers from a torn ACL and meniscus. Free-agent pickups Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin III are on one-year deals and provide veteran depth. For now, Mooney and Darius Slayton are likely to compete for the No. 2 role while Austin takes on the slot receiver role.<\/p>\n
Fields adds a completely different piece to the Giants\u2019 offense thanks to his 6-foot-4, 218-pound frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s certainly a different body type than we currently have,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cAdding that was something we had talked about doing. We weren\u2019t going to force it unless the value was at the right spot. Obviously, being 6-foot-4-1\/2, 218 pounds, and the catch radius and athleticism that he displays was attractive. All those things were almost like \u2018build a basketball team\u2019 we talk about. You got your power forward now.\u201d<\/p>\n
After four years at Virginia, Fields transferred to Notre Dame for one final season. With the Fighting Irish, Fields tallied 36 receptions for 630 yards and five touchdowns. He had an impressive showing at the Senior Bowl that stuck out to Giants scouts, even as Harbaugh and Schoen missed the annual event while sorting out the coaching staff. Schoen said Fields was the \u201cbest receiver down there\u201d from the reports they got back.<\/p>\n
But for all the prospective benefits, the Giants gave up a lot. Especially considering dipping into the 2027 draft class, which is projected to be stronger than this year\u2019s. Now, the Giants have just five picks next year: Rounds 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 after trading their seventh-rounder in the Darren Waller pick swap. A fourth-round comp pick is still in play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the comp formula, we\u2019ll see if we\u2019re able to still get one there,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cThere\u2019s a chance we can maybe get a comp formula, a pick for Wan\u2019Dale (Robinson). You may get one-for-one there. As we\u2019ve seen throughout the draft, we\u2019ve had opportunities to move back four, five, sixes. If you want to be intentional about it, you can certainly do that earlier in the Draft, move back a couple spots. Just excited to get the player we were able to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it leaves Harbaugh and the Giants with just three remaining sixth-round selections this weekend: No.186, No. 192 and No. 193. While the Giants addressed wide receiver, a big missing piece remains in boosting the defensive tackle spot. That figures to be addressed not only in the sixth round, but also with remaining available free agents and undrafted free agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a player up there we coveted, and we felt really good if we\u2019re able to get him, get him in the building,\u201d Schoen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. \u2014 The Giants are getting giant. After selecting cornerback Colton Hood with the No. 37…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,977,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-605752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-new-york-giants","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}