Part of the reason New York Giants fans were so excited to land Arvell Reese with the fifth pick in the 2026 NFL Draft is because he's a true chess piece in the middle of a defense. He's versatile enough to line up in the box and off the edge, but the Giants haven't really utilized him as such yet.
Rather than turn him into another tweener like Isaiah Simmons was in New York, Dennard Wilson has tried not to get too cute too fast. The Giants have kept him as a linebacker right now so he can get his feet wet in the NFL, but unfortunately, that's a luxury they might not get to have much longer anymore as the injury bug continues to shake this team to its core.
In the 28-6 loss to the Rams on Monday Night Football, disaster struck with New York losing Jaxson Dart for the season due to a knee injury, but Malik Nabers and Brian Burns also went down. In short, it was not an ideal night to be the G-Men.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Burns is dealing with a low-ankle sprain, so he's likely going to miss time--especially considering he didn't practice on Wednesday. And as long as he's out, the idea of getting creative with Reese may be too tempting for Wilson and John Harbaugh to ignore.
The Giants finally have a reason to line Arvell Reese up off the edge
Replacing a player coming off a 16.5-sack season isn’t easy, especially when Burns has never finished a season with fewer than 7.5 sacks and has three Pro Bowl appearances to his name. But the nice thing about versatility is that it makes it a lot easier to find people qualified to step up in the face of injury--but Arvell Reese is not your ordinary rookie linebacker.
And given Big Blue drafted him with the idea that he could play both roles, now is as good a time as any to give him a real look off the edge. And while Reese and Tremaine Edmunds are a dangerous linebacker duo, there's still a lot of meat left on the bone in terms of what they can get out of him.
Currently, the Giants' only options off the edge outside of Burns are Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux, which means giving Reese some snaps as a pass-rusher would be in their best interest. I'm not saying make him an every-down guy, but he certainly could help as a primary LB who rotates in.
Across 117 defensive snaps in the first two weeks of 2026, just 22 of them (11 in each game) saw Reese line up on the defensive line. So far, the Giants have only scratched the surface of the former Ohio State standout’s versatility, but desperate times call for desperate measures in this league. And we saw in college that he can handle doing a little bit of both.
And considering the Giants' pass rush has yet to come alive this season, perhaps moving Reese to the edge (on a temporary basis), while Brian Burns is sidelined, can be the spark that finally ignites this defensive line, and it'll be another chance for him to continue making a fantastic first impression.
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