The 2026 NFL Draft is now solidly in the rearview mirror and we’ve had about a week to process the moves made by all 32 teams.
It’ll be a while yet before we know just how good the New York Giants draft class will turn out to be. For now, however, the Giants’ work has been widely praised. The national media has generally regarded the Giants’ class as one of the League’s strongest.
Now, fans have joined the pundits in praising the work Joe Schoen and John Harbaugh have done in their first draft together.
The Giants consider themselves incredibly lucky to land two players in the Top 5 on their draft board in Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa, then turned around and grabbed a fringe first rounder in Colton Hood and a Top 50 player in Malachi Fields.
Taking a step back, only two teams were graded higher by fans than the Giants — the Cleveland Browns (70 percent “A” grades) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (68 percent “A” grades). Well-received drafts have become the norm for the Giants, who’ve received high marks for each of their 2024, 2025, and now 2026 drafts.
While Joe Schoen has received plenty of criticism over the last year, he has typically done a good job of finding value in the middle rounds with players like Micah McFadden, Tyrone Tracy, Theo Johnson, and Cam Skattebo. Finding starters and important role-players in the middle rounds is one of the hardest things for a team to do, and the Giants have done that well in recent years.
The Giants front office has also developed a good feel for how the draft will play out, anticipating where value at positions will emerge. Likewise, they’ve done a good job of anticipating when and where runs will happen and getting in front of them, such as jumping back into the 3rd round to get Malachi Field just a run on wide receivers was starting.
Now the onus moves to the coaching staff to develop the Giants’ young players and put them in position to succeed. But at least John Harbaugh’s staff is starting from a strong position with a well-regarded class for which they seem to have a plan in place.
