It’s become something of a running joke since the New York Giants hired John Harbaugh back in January that he’s trying to turn the New York Giants into the New York Ravens.
Every coach attempts to put their own stamp on a team, that’s nothing new and something Giants fans have gone through with frustrating frequency since 2016. So it shouldn’t be surprising that when Harbaugh began renovating his new team it would resemble the team he coached for the previous 18 years. Harbaugh is also used to winning
and unsurprisingly wants to shorten the learning curve as much as possible. That means bringing in coaches with whom he’s familiar and players who speak their language.
And part of that — a big part of it — means improving a Giants’ defense that has woefully under-performed.
Dennard Wilson has been charged with fixing the Giants’ defense, which will almost certainly involve a dramatic schematic shift from Shane Bowen’s philosophy to a “Ravens 2.0” style scheme.
Taking a quick step back, Wink Martindale and Harbaugh began developing the philosophy about a decade ago. The basic premise is to take the “Ryan” penchant for pressure while making use of the new generation of versatile athletes coming out of college to dictate terms to the offense. The philosophy has been further refined by the likes of Mike MacDonald and Jesse Minter, streamlining the scheme and adopting some concepts from collegiate defenses to account for Spread and Wide-Zone principles that have entered NFL offenses.
Where Martindale favored exotic blitz looks and an almost psychotic commitment to sending pressure to dictate terms, MacDonald and Minter instead use formations and looks to take away options and gaps from the offense, funneling the ball where they want it to go. The MacDonald and Minter versions of the scheme make use of hyper-versatile safeties (Kyle Hamilton, Nick Emmanwori, and Derwin James) that blur the lines between safety and linebacker to allow the defense to be multiple without changing personnel.
Wilson, who coached under MacDonald in 2023, will likely have a different take on the philosophy. Where the Giants don’t have a safety with the traits of Hamilton, Emmanwori, or James, they did have Arvell Reese fall into their laps at fifth overall.
Reese’s skill set is reminiscent of Micah Parsons and (Giants’ 2025 3rd overall pick) Abdul Carter as a linebacker who transitioned to edge defender.
The Giants, however, won’t be using Reese as a full-time edge defender. They’ll be using him in much the same way as Matt Patricia used him at Ohio State: As a moveable piece and one of the fulcrums around which the defense rotated.
“Arvell is a versatile player, and we’re going to play him at inside backer, WILL linebacker. Our defense is pretty flexible, position-less you might call it. We’ll have an opportunity to move those guys around,” Harbaugh said. “But he’ll line up next to Tremaine (Edmunds), and he’ll be in the A gap, the B gap, the C gap, the D gap, off the edge. He’ll be moving around with all of our guys. Abdul (Carter) and Brian (Burns) and Kayvon (Thibodeaux) and Tremaine.
“We’ll be running games and picks and stunts and different things like that on passing situations, and he’s good in coverage as well, he’s a versatile player.
Reese split his time almost perfectly between being on the line and in space. He logged 327 snaps on the defensive line and 322 snaps as an off-ball linebacker, in the slot, or at “corner”, per PFF.
The Giants couldn’t have planned for Reese to fall to them at No. 5 overall. He was widely expected to go somewhere between 2nd overall (Jets) and fourth overall (Titans). If they were already planning on having an adjuster in the defensive front, it likely would have been either Abdul Carter or Kayvon Thibodeaux. Both players have the athleticism to drop into coverage, with Carter playing linebacker at Penn State and Thibodeaux dropping relatively frequently under Wink Martindale.
However, the Giants did manage to land Reese, giving them a high-upside player with fluency in both coverage and down-hill play.
In fact, Reese’s ability to rush or drop made him a key piece in the Fire Zone blitzes which were common to both the Ohio State and Mike MacDonald defenses.
MatchQuarters" />
Reese, as the WILL linebacker would come down through the B-gap while the safety blitzes outside the offensive tackle. The “Sand” in the play call refers to Mike MacDonald’s “Sand” path, which uses the WILL and safety to overload one side of the offense with a 4-man pressure.
Reese’s ability to play both off-ball and on the line of scrimmage also allows the Giants to change their front on a moment’s notice. He can walk up from his linebacker spot to an EDGE alignment, allowing the entire front to shift from a 4 to 5-man front, changing gap assignments and moving from an Under defense to a TITE front or BEAR front. While a 4-3 Under and Bear front look similar, the gap responsibilities are different and the alignment makes running inside an absolute headache for the offense.
Of course, we don’t yet know what the Giants’ defense will look like this year. We won’t really know what the scheme entails until sometime in the 2026 regular season. However, we will start to get a rough idea over the course of OTAs, mini-camp, and in training camp. But while we don’t know just what role Reese will play in Wilson’s defense, it’s almost absurd to think that a player who was Top 2 on the Giants board wouldn’t figure heavily into their plans.
A player with Reese’s versatility, skill set, and athletic upside — like Hamilton or Emmanwori — is the kind of player you build your scheme around.
