The New York Giants defense under coordinator Dennard Wilson has become an aggressive unit that is playing well despite the loss of Brian Burns, questions on the defensive line, and churn in the secondary due to injuries. Let’s go position-by-position with Kudos, Wet Willies, and thoughts on every player.
Defensive line
D.J. Reader — Dexter Lawrence is an elite player who has returned to form this season with the Cincinnati Bengals. It isn’t worth crying over spilt milk, though. Reader has been everything the Giants
could have hoped for in a replacement. Maybe more.
Pro Football Focus, in fact, ranks Reader as the best defensive tackle in football so far this season with an elite 90.4 grades. Lawrence (87.6) is No. 2).
Want to see a major difference in grading systems? Pro Football and Sports Network, which puts much more weight on pass rush, has Reader as its 53rd-ranked defensive tackle, with Lawrence at No. 2.
Regardless of all of the number gobbledygook (now that’s a cool Halloween word), Reader has been outstanding for the Giants. They just need to get him some help.
Grade: Kudos
Shelby Harris — The fact that Harris is the Giants’ second-best defensive lineman tells you why the position is an issue, and a priority for the team to address before the Nov. 10 NFL trade deadline. The 35-year-old, in his 13th NFL season, is not the player he once was.
Statistical sites, in fact, tell us that Harris is clearly having what is by far the worst season of his career.
Pro Football Focus tells us Harris is No. 102 of 126 qualifying defensive tackles, and that his 49.2 grade is the first would be the first time in his career he has graded below 60.0.
Pro Football and Sports Network shows a similar degradation in Harris’ play.
Harris is still playing a ton of snaps (238 thus far, 54%), and doing what he can. At this point in his career, though, the Giants appear to be asking too much of him.
Grade: Kwillie
Darius Alexander — One reason the Giants are asking so much of the aging Harris is that Alexander, a 2025 third-round pick, has not given them enough. PFSN ranks Alexander 119th among 121 qualifying defensive tcles this season, and PFF ranks him No. 102 of 147 qualifiers in their grading system.
Alexander’s talent and athleticism tell you he should be much more than he has been.
Grade: Wet Willie
Bobby Jamison-Travis — The rookie sixth-round pick did not see action until Week 6 against the New Orleans Saints. He played well against the run vs. the Houston Texans in Week 7, giving reason to hope he can contribute, but 42 total defensive snaps is not enough to give a legitimate grade.
Grade: Incomplete
C.J. Okoye — The Giants acquired the 6-foot-6, 365-pound 24-year-old from the Baltimore Ravens, where he had played for John Harbaugh, for the low price of a 2028 seventh-round pick. They hoped Okoye would take a step forward in his development and become a solid rotational run defender. It hasn’t happened, and Okoye has played just 87 defensive snaps (14.5 per game) across six games. A man as big and strong as Okoye shouldn’t be pushed out of a hole by blockers as easily and as often as Okoye is.
Grade: Wet Willie
Chauncey Golston — The veteran defensive end had earned a big role on defense before a neck injury short-circuited his season.
Grade: Incomplete
Edge defender
Abdul Carter — The No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft has spent the season reminding everyone why the Giants drafted him so high a year ago. His sack numbers (2.0) just don’t yet reflect how good the 23-year-old has actually been.
Carter has been a nightmare for opposing blockers this season, and is one one three qualifying edge defenders with elite Pro Football Focus grades of 90.0 or higher. With a 90.3 mark, he joins Will Anderson (90.8) and Aidan Hutchinson (92.2). PFSN penalizes him for the lack of sacks, ranking him a ridiculousy low No. 58 among 122 qualifiers.
Carter had a rocky rookie season, marked by maturity issues. This season, he has stepped up as both a player and as a vocal locker room leader.
Grade: Kudos
Kayvon Thibodeaux — The No. 5 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft is always a lightning rod for disagreement when it comes to trying to assess his play.
The pure numbers would tell you that Thibodeaux, starting after Brian Burns’ unfortunate season-ending injury, has been terrible and the Giants should either trade him before the upcoming deadline or happily let him walk in free agency at season’s end. He is 12th on the team in tackles (15), doesn’t have a tackle for loss or a sack, and has just one quarterback hit.
But, there are other more advanced and less visible to the naked eye measures that tell you there are plenty of ways in which Thibodeaux has been quietly effective.
Two things can be true at the same time, and in this case probably are. Thibodeaux is a good player, and if he were a third-round pick he would probably be looked at as a fantastic find at that point in the draft. Quietly effective, though, is not what you are hoping for from a No. 5 overall pick.
Grade: Kwillie
Brian Burns — I feel terrible for Burns. He is a pro’s pro, a nice guy, and a locker room leader who approaches and plays the game the right way. In eight NFL seasons, though, Burns has never had the good fortune of playing for a team that has made the playoffs. This Giants team has the chance to do that, and his season-ending knee injury means Burns won’t have a chance to help make that happen.
Grade: Incomplete
Trace Ford — The second-year former undrafted free agent gets credit for perseverance. The Giants cut him in 2025, and he spent part of the season on the team’s practice squad. They cut him again this year, and he again landed on the practice squad. Burns’ injury opened an opportunity for him to be a game-day elevation, and he parlayed that into a spot on the 53-man roster.
Ford has shown some potential with 10 tackles and three hurries over four games and 70 defensive snaps.
Grade: Kudos
Inside linebacker
Arvell Reese — I don’t care how good David Bailey, Jeremiyah Love, or Carnell Tate turn out to be, how did the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, and Tennessee Titans let this guy fall to the Giants with the fifth pick in the 2026 NFL Draft?
“Man, how good has he been? He’s been awesome. He’s been phenomenal since the day he got here,” GM Joe Schoen said during his bye week press conference. “And that’s probably why Coach and I, even in that [draft] video, we were shocked he was there. So, he’s just a quiet kid that goes about his business and he’s all ball all the time.
“That play he made the other day where he should have had the sack on (Houston Texans quarterback) C.J. (Stroud) and then turns around and hauls tail all the way down the field and puts the guy flat on his back while punching for the ball. I mean, you don’t see many people with his size that can move like that. And then just, that’s internal. That’s just want to. To go towards the quarterback and then turn and run, you can’t coach that. You either got that or you don’t. And his effort and the way he plays and flies around, I mean, you see him on film, he’s moving at a different speed than everybody else. And he’s just so big and fast and violent. So, we’re ecstatic to have him. We’re excited to see what the future holds.”
Reese is probably already the Giants’ best defensive player. ESPN recently ranked Reese and Sonny Styles as co-No. 1sin a post naming the top 10 rookies. ESPN’s Jordan Reid wrote:
Reese’s physicality and speed have shown up right away at the NFL level. He is comfortable attacking downhill as a run defender, and his consistency in coverage has been excellent. His four pass breakups are tied for the second most among all linebackers in 2026.
Reese is the ultimate playmaker who can not only be used on the second level but is also equally as effective as a blitzer. He has 10 pass-rush wins and two pass breakups on 93 blitz attempts this season. Reese is a key building block for the Giants’ defense alongside 2025 first-round pick Abdul Carter.
Grade: Kudos … If there was a higher grade, a ‘super Kudos’, I’d give it to Reese.
Tremaine Edmunds — Edmunds was the Giants’ leading tackler and defensive signal-caller before being lost for the season. His size and athleticism next to Reese will be missed, even though Micah McFadden is a quality player.
Grade: Incomplete
Micah McFadden — A Week 1 foot injury cost McFadden a chance at a big free agent contract last offseason. He re-signed a one-year “prove it” deal with the Giants. Only, with Reese and Edmunds in front of him, McFadden was stuck playing special teams and waiting for a chance.
He did not complain. With Edmunds out for the season, McFadden’s chance is here now. There are flaws in his game, but if he continues to play like he did Sunday against the Houston Texans, McFadden should find a nice free agent payday waiting for him somewhere this offseason.
Grade: Kudos … Maybe one full game at linebacker should make this an incomplete, but McFadden’s attitude and readiness to play vs. the Texans and be the defensive signal-caller deserves recognition.
Malik Harrison — A seven-year veteran, Harrison is a key special teams player for the Giants. Defensively, though, he has played just four snaps.
Grade: Incomplete
Zaire Barnes — Like Harrison, Barnes is a key special teams player who does not have a defensive role. He has played just three defensive snaps.
Grade: Incomplete
Jack Kelly — A sixth-round pick, Kelly showed promise during training camp. He has yet to play a defensive snap this season, with his role confined strictly to special teams.
Grade: Incomplete
Cornerback
Deonte Banks — Banks has gone from a player with his future in question after back-to-back rough seasons, to one playing the way the Giants hoped he would when they traded up to make him a first-round pick in 2023. Against Nico Collins last Sunday, Banks looked like a No. 1 cornerback.
Is there any doubt the Giants need to give Banks a contract extension.
Here is some of his work this season:
Banks did this on the final play of a game against the Arizona Cardinals to secure a victory:
Banks has accepted coaching, is playing in an aggressive scheme that allows him to be an athlete, has taken ownership of a couple of plays he did not make, and is having fun.
Grade: Kudos
Greg Newsome — It was fair to wonder which version of Newsome the Giants would get this season. Would they get the former first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns who played really well in his first couple of seasons, or the guy who played like an untrustworthy journeyman the last couple of years. They have gotten the former.
Grade: Kudos
Dru Phillips — Phillips is an aggressive run defender and overall good player who has a nasty habit of getting grabby in coverage. Phillips has five penalties this second, second-most among defensive backs to Kamari Lassiter of the Houston Texans, who has 6.
Grade: Kwillie
Colton Hood — The Giants believe that the rookie second-round pick will eventually develop into a reliable starting-caliber cornerback. He has played 125 snaps, and his 138.5 passer rating against, per Pro Football Reference, shows that he isn’t there yet.
Grade: Kwillie
Paulson Adebo — Adebo did not play well in a Week 1 10-snap cameo, then went on IR with a knee injury. He returned in Week 7 and played well against the Texans, playing every snap in place of the injured Newsome.
Grade: Incomplete
Nic Jones — He is mostly a special teams player, with only 36 defensive snaps played so far this season. My impression has always been that he could be more, but he hasn’t had the chance.
Grade: Incomplete
Nikko Reed — Does anyone even remember when the Giants signed Reed off the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad in mid-September? He has yet to play a defensive snap.
Grade: Incomplete
Safety
Jevon Holland — Holland won the Giants Week 3 game against Tennessee with an end zone interception in the closing seconds. He already has a career-high three interceptions after getting just six over his first five NFL seasons. He has also forced two fumbles.
Grade: Kudos
Tyler Nubin — Nubin’s issues are the same as they have always been. When he takes a bad angle in the open field, his athleticism betrays him and tackles that should be made turn into big plays. The ball-hawking ability he showed in college has never translated to the NFL.
Nubin missed Week 6 with a neck injury and played only one emergency snap in Week 7. When the Giants return from their bye, it will be interesting to see if Jason Pinnock has taken his starting job. In the meritocracy in which the Giants are operating, that would not be a surprise.
Grade: Kwillie
Jason Pinnock — Pinnock was really good for the Giants in Wink Martindale’s aggressive defense in 2023.
Grade: Kudos
Ar’Darius Washington — Washington is a useful veteran player who can fill a number of roles in the secondary. He has not, though, been able to surpass Tyler Nubin or Jason Pinnock on the depth chart.
Grade: Kwillie
Elijah Campbell — Campbell is a career special teams player. He has not played a single defensive snap, while logging 158 on special teams. He only played 16 defensive snaps for the Miami Dolphins last season.
Grade: Incomplete
