New York Giants rookies report for training camp at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on Thursday. Veteran players report on Tuesday, July 28.
With rookies set to get to work, let’s look at one thing each of them has to prove before the season begins.
Arvell Reese
Can he handle everything he is being asked to do?
The Giants were clear from the moment they selected Reese No. 5 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft that he would play one position — off-ball linebacker.
That, though, doesn’t mean
the Giants won’t be asking Reese to handle a wide variety of responsibilities.
“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,” Harbaugh told media just moments after the pick was announced. “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.”
The Giants will align their “off-ball linebacker” in several spots. They will use him in pass coverage. They will use him as a blitzer. Yes, he will play one position. He will, though, have many responsibilities within that one spot.
“We’ve gotta be able to take advantage of his physical skill without overloading him as far as the mental thing is concerned,” said inside linebackers coach Frank Bush. “He’s shown an amazing ability to grasp the information, understand the concept, and still flourish within the concepts.
“He’s not been a mistake guy. He’s been able to flash and make plays even though we’ve got a lot going on with him. He’s proven that he can handle it, but we as coaches have got to understand where he is, when it’s time to backpedal a little bit and let the kid just use his athleticism.”
Sisi Mauigoa
Can he adjust to how quickly things happen at guard?
Talk to any offensive lineman who has played both guard and tackle, and you hear the same story about the differences in the two positions. You play in tighter quarters at guard, and, consequently, things happen faster. The players on the outside might be more athletic, but the lack of space speeds things up inside.
Mauigoa was a collegiate right tackle. He will play right guard for the Giants.
“I don’t have that much space to work with [at guard],” Mauigoa said this spring. “Playing at tackle, you have all the space, where at guard everything happens so fast. It’s not something I really need to work on; it’s something that I need to get used to.”
Ex-Giant Jon Feliciano, who trained Mauigoa before the draft, has no doubt Mauigoa will adjust. He said Mauigoa will have to adjust to “the timing of throwing your hands and just how fast things happen inside,” but believes he will “hit the ground running when the season starts.”
He needs to. Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark of the Dallas Cowboys will be across from him Week 1. Aaron Donald might be lined up against him in Week 2 when the Giants face the Los Angeles Rams. Jeffrey Simmons and John Franklin-Myers are part of the Tennessee Titans’ defensive line.
Mauigoa is not going to have a chance to ease into his NFL career.
Colton Hood
Can he apply the lessons of the spring?
During minicamp, there was a rep where Hood trotted out to his cornerback spot on the defense. Across from him was a player who was a world-famous superstar when Hood was just a kid, Odell Beckham Jr.
Was Hood a little starstruck in the moment? Maybe. Maybe not.
Beckham proceeded to show the young fella that a) there is still some gas in the old man’s tank, and b) Hood still has some things to learn.
The ball was snapped, Beckham put a couple of moves on the rookie cornerback, and left him helpless 10-15 yards away as he caught a long touchdown pass.
Cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch said there are “little things” Hood needs to improve upon.
“He’s picked up the techniques very fast for a young rookie,” Lynch said. “He’s settled into what we’re trying to get accomplished with the scheme, and as far as our technique, and he’s doing a good job applying those skills.
“Now it’s just some of the stuff when we get down the field that’s in flight. It’s, hey, we need to stay on top of leverage. We don’t need to undercut some things. And it’s the little things that he’s going to get and get more consistent with, and you’re going to be able to see him take off and play well.”
The Giants drafted Hood in the second round, believing he was a late- first-round talent who can be a starter for them. Before they give him snaps ahead of veteran Greg Newsome, though, Hood is going to have to show that he has benefited from the lessons learned from Beckham and others during the spring.
Bobby Jamison-Travis
Can he hold his ground vs. NFL blockers?
Jamison-Travis was the only defensive lineman the Giants drafted, one of their three sixth-round selections.
The Giants will need a backup nose tackle for D.J. Reader. Even more than that, they need interior defensive linemen who are stout against the run. They hope the 6-foot-3, 328-pound Travis can be that.
“What you have seen in his game is strength in knock-back. In the trenches his hands don’t always work in unison, but that’s coaching,” assistant GM Brandon Brown said this spring. “he has power in his hands, and he can eat double-teams. He doesn’t get moved by side anchor, and he can create knock-back … He’s not a pass rusher, but what he can do is eat two blocks, and he can be firm.”
If Jamison-Travis can prove Brown right this summer once the pads come on, that might be a step for the Giants toward fixing their long-troublesome run defense.
J.C. Davis
Can he handle more than one position?
The second of the Giants’ three sixth-round picks in the 206 NFL Draft, I can’t recall seeing Davis play anywhere but left tackle during the OTA and mandatory minicamp practices media had access to this spring.
Davis was a left tackle at Illinois. Some analysts speculated that he could have guard flexibility, but the Giants did not seem ready to try him there yet. To make the 53-man roster, Davis likely has to show at least some aptitude to play right tackle. Backup linemen simply have to be able to play more than one position to be active on game days.
Jack Kelly
Can he consistently tackle NFL-caliber athletes?
Considering that he was the 193rd player selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, the last of the Giants’ three Round 6 selections, there is a decent amount of excitement about Kelly.
The former Weber State and BYU linebacker seems likely to make the 53-man roster. At least it seemed that way in the spring, when Kelly worked mostly alongside Micah McFadden with the second-team defense.
Some analysts think he might be a tweener. He flashed pass rush skills that might be befitting of an edge defender, but there are athletic limitations, and some are concerned about his ability to cover running backs and tight ends.
There is, though, one major blemish on Kelly’s resume that should be the biggest concern of all — he struggled mightily to make tackles over the past three seasons.
At Weber State in 2023, Kelly missed 16.9% of his tackles. He then transferred to BYU. In 2024, he missed 20.0% of tackle attempts, and in 2025 that rose to an alarming 21.9%.
Players who struggle to tackle at the collegiate level do not usually improve that skill in the NFL. The collectively bargained practice rules make tackling something that is rarely done in NFL practices, and make even the act of going through real tackling drills a rarity. At most, players usually simulate getting themselves in position to make tackles.
With that in mind, I don’t know how Kelly solves his tackling problem. If he can’t, though, then there will be a critical hole in his game that may keep him from being more than a backup linebacker and core special teams player.
