The New York Giants traded up to pick No. 74 in the 2026 NFL Draft to select Notre Dame wide receiver Malachi Fields. New York departed with picks No. 105, No. 145, and a 2027 4th-rounder to land a 6-foot-4, 218-pound X receiver who offers the Giants’ offense a different body type and skill-set than they currently have in their wide receiver room.
Fields snagged 36 of 62 passes for 630 yards with five touchdowns in 2025 — his lone season as a Golden Domer. He spent four seasons at Virginia; he eclipsed
over 800 yards in 2024 and 2023 as a Cavalier, securing 10 touchdowns over the two seasons. He finished his college career with 165 catches (278 targets, 59.4% catch rate) for 2,486 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Fields is a big-bodied wide receiver who mostly aligned out-wide. His career yards-per-route-run was 1.94, but his 2025 number was 2.20 with Notre Dame. Fields had an average aDot of 14.1 (16.4 in 2025) and his yards per reception was 15.1 (17.5 in 2025). Fields only has three drops over the last two seasons. Fields forced 29 total missed tackles in his career, and he caught 47.2% of his contested catches (34 of 72). Fields was selected to the Third Team All-ACC in 2024, and he will be in attendance at the Senior Bowl.
Strengths
- Elite size, length, girth + athletic combination
- Elite catch radius and strong hands
- Solid overall athlete with good long-speed and solid agility
- Long limbed long strider
- Excellent leaping skills and lower-body explosiveness
- Immediate ability to turn back to the QB on quick curls
- Solid overall release package
- Does well to defeat press with strength – quick to stack
- Fluid mover in a phone booth for player of his size at the LOS
- Good footwork at the line of scrimmage
- Creates sufficient separation on vertical and deep crossing plane vs. man
- Smart receiver who understands where to sit against zone
- Attacks the football – has a “it’s mine” mentality
- Excellent concentration
- Several acrobatic grabs on his highlight reel
- Ball skills phenom – strong reliable hands
- Elite play strength at the catch point, and overall
- Love his physical nature
- Good eyes in space to create YAC
- Excellent blocker who can eliminate DBs
- Was a team captain at Virginia
Weaknesses
- Is a bit high-hipped
- Not very sudden or explosive
- Can he be a consistent deep threat?
- Can he consistently create separation?
- Excellent size/speed combination but it leans more to size than speed
- Never broke 1,000 yards in a season
Fields profiles as a prototypical X receiver, offering an excellent blend of size, strength, athleticism, and ball skills. He shows impressive fluidity for a player of his build and consistently attacks the football in the air, making acrobatic, high-degree-of-difficulty catches with strong concentration. Fields did a better job in 2025 of using his massive frame to his advantage at Notre Dame, particularly at the catch point. Once he opens up his stride, Fields eats up ground vertically and can generate adequate separation on deep posts.
That said, questions about his ability to consistently separate against NFL-level coverage are fair. His pre-draft testing will be important in clarifying that projection. Ultimately, Fields is a physical, aggressive “baller” at the position. Fields fills the need for an X-receiver who can win 50/50 balls and serve as a dependable target underneath against zone coverage for the quarterback. Fields projects as an excellent fit.
Fields offers the Giants a heavier — much more effective — blocking 11 personnel package that can feature him as a power-slot, which will put weaker, run-vulnerable, defensive sub-packages into a precarious spot. Matt Nagy focused on the power slot in Kansas City with Rashee Rice. The offense won’t run through Fields in this role, but his presence offers the Giants another weapon in the chess game of personnel deployment.
New York needed an infusion of young depth at the wide receiver position. With the probable release of Darius Slayton after 2026, Malik Nabers was the only wide receiver under contract beyond this season. Please enjoy the video below!
