New York Giants linebacker Arvell Reese has been named NFL Rookie of the Week for his play on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. It is the first of what might be many honors for Reese, the fifth overall pick in the draft, who appears to have a bright future.
Reese helped the Giants to a 36-24 victory over the Cardinals as they improved to 3-1 on the season with nine solo tackles, three passes defensed, one tackle for loss and his first career interception. He leads the NFL with 26 solo tackles.
After Sunday’s game, he called his performance “decent.”
“One thing you look for is called ‘no-hesitation tackling,'” coach John Harbaugh recalled this week about scouting Reese in the draft. “In other words, guys who get there quick and don’t give the ball carrier much chance to make him miss, they aren’t really too hesitant. But you’ve got to be good to do that because if you’re going that way and the ball carrier is coming the other way, you can miss when you do that too. So, he’s got that unique kind of just talent to get there quickly and still hit his target. And you see it. He’s doing it now. He’s doing a great job.”
Many analysts saw Reese as an edge defender in the NFL. The Giants did not, drafting him to be an inside linebacker. Why?
“I would answer it this way. That’s what he played. So, it was easy,” Harbaugh said. “You watched him on tape and he played it really well. And I could see where they might have said, ‘Well, he’s young, he hasn’t played a lot. He’s 20 years old,’ and all that, but he played it really well at Ohio State against the best teams in the country in a pretty complicated defensive system that they have over there. So, yeah, it was, to me, the evidence was right there.”
Cornerback Deonte Banks won NFL Defensive Player of the Week honors this week for his game-clinching interception against the Cardinals.
