The New York Giants truly landed the best of both worlds by drafting Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese with the fifth pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. For one, no one expected him to be available, but for the Giants, they will allow him to line up both at linebacker and off the edge in situational packages.
Reese has the versatility to offer New York exactly what they should be trying to build defensively. His skillset is basically a supercharged version of Sonny Styles. An off-ball linebacker who is elite in coverage is valuable, but one who can patrol the entire front seven offers significantly more value.
And that's precisely why Reese is being looked at as one of the best picks of the draft: Big Blue has clear plans for him. So while naming five rookies who landed in the ideal situation, CBS Sports' Jared Dubin listed the 20-year-old for his status as the latest member of an emerging Giants' pass-rush.
"The versatile Ohio State star went to a team that allows him to play multiple roles, not just as an edge rusher, as might have been the case if he had been drafted elsewhere," Dubin wrote.
The New York Giants are the best possible landing spot for Arvell Reese
Dubin noted that Reese played 327 snaps at outside linebacker, and 286 as an off-ball linebacker in 2025, and he excelled at both. He logged 6.5 sacks and 10 TFLs and was named the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, so he doesn't have to move to edge like he would've done anywhere else.
Odds are that he will spend more time at inside linebacker alongside Tremaine Edmunds to kick off his career, but will join Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux (if he isn't traded) off the edge when necessary. And Dubin sees that as the perfect way to attack pure pass-rush situations.
"When the Giants' defense gets in pure pass-rush situations, they can line up all three guys along the defensive front together and really force the opposition into a pickle. That's an especially dangerous look that the Giants will want to get to quite often, especially because their interior defensive line room is one of the weaker ones in the NFL at the moment. Using each of Burns, Carter and Reese to rush the passer from different angles will help overcome that specific weakness."
While it may seem like this Giants' pass-rush is incredibly overcrowded now, you can never have too many elite pass-rushers in the NFL. But Reese is an off-ball linebacker who can rush the passer with the best of them, so his selection doesn't necessarily require New York to trade away Thibodeaux.
Reese has significantly more upside than any other player in this draft, and with plans like this, it's not hard to see why that is: the G-Men and new DC Dennard Wilson are planning to exhaust every ounce of potential out of this kid.
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