The Rockne Blueprint: Turning Giants’ Draft Weaknesses into Strengths

Last updated on May 5th, 2026 at 10:05 pm

“Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points”. – Knute Rockne

The Giants draft is viewed as successful by the analysts. However the picks are not without their weaknesses. In the attitude of Knute Rockne lets take a look at these weaknesses and how they may be offest.

Rd 1 Pick 5 Arvell Reese

Reese played primarily as an outside linebacker/edge rusher in college. The site NFL.com lists his position as Edge. However as can be seen in the mockdraftable chart below that as an edge Reese is what they consider a tweener in the NFL. He is physically small for an edge rusher with short arms. To offset this weakness the Giants plan to use him as a hybrid player. “Arvell is a versatile player, and we’re going to play him at inside backer, Will linebacker,” Harbaugh said. “Our defense is pretty flexible, position-less you might call it. We’ll have an opportunity to move those guys around. But he’ll line up next to Tremaine, 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 and Brian and Kayvon and Tremaine.”

You can see in the chart that compared to inside linebackers, Reese physically matches up better. He still will need to bulk up but a good conditioning program should take care of that.

“I had talked with Coach Dennard, [inside linebacker] Coach [Frank] Bush, Coach Harbaugh,” the 6-foot-4, 241-pound Reese said. “They told me how they would use me. From that I just say I’m going to be used in a unique way. I’m a weapon. That’s how it’s supposed to be.” Reese said the majority of teams told him he would play outside backer, and then there were a couple of teams, including the Giants, that mentioned inside backer. – Giants.com

The other knock on Reese is his lack of production. This is an area of concern. The combination of one being size with moving Reese to an inside linebacker and the lack of production is concerning. Here is a list of off-ball linebackers chosen in the first round over the last ten years sorted by their college career total tackle counts. The color coding denotes yellow for an NFL career below expectations and a green for met or exceeds expectations. There is a strong correlation that those with significant career total tackles in college performed better in the NFL. Unfortunately Reese is at the bottom of the total tackle list. The same situation exists if we look at assisted tackles.

So the positive direction forward is for Reese to fit into a hybrid role of both off-ball linebacker and edge rusher. Others have done so and excelled. Lets look at some NFL players that fill that role and their college production. The gold statndard would be Micah Parsons. Here is a summary of Parsons’ NFL success

Here was Parsons’ college production

Parsons led Penn State in both seasons, starting as a freshman, in total tackles. This though he started only one game. He was the only freshman in team history to lead the team in tackles. In his second year Parsons reached the 100-tackle mark, the first Penn State player since Marcus Allen in 2016. In college Parsons showed rare run defense ability. His 94.8 run-defense grade in 2019 was the second-best figure PFF had ever seen in a single season. PFF stated that Parsons’ one of the best tacklers in the country, with only 11 misses on 188 attempts in his entire college career. In college football history he is tied at second for the least amount of games to reach 190 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. Despite not being a full-time edge rusher, he generated 26 quarterback pressures in his final season (2019). Parsons played in pass rushing snaps roughly 13%.

Here is Arvell Reese’s college production. In his best year of 2025 Reese was second on the team in total tackles. Reese earned a 75.4 overall PFF defensive grade in the 2025 season, 180th among 809 qualified linebackers. His PFF coverage grade of 53.6 ranked 597th among 809 qualified linebackers. His run-defense grade of 87.1 ranked 53rd at the position. His pass-rush grade of 72.9 ranked 134th among qualified linebackers. Reese did have 23 pressures in 2025 but that was on lining up as an edge rusher 50% of the time. There is no indication that would justify a trajectory for a Micah Parsons career.

Zach Baun is another hybrid. Baun has seen a resurgence of his career since joining the Eagles in 2024. Here is Baun’s NFL career. He has made the Pro Bowl both years on the Eagles and made First Team All-Pro the first year.

Below is Baun’s college production. Baun was third of the team his last years in total tackles. Physically Baun and Reese match up pretty close. Both have been considered tweeners. Their college production was also close. Athletically both are considered highly athletic with Reese showing an edge in the forty. This is a positive comp for Reese. The Gaurdian had this say about Reese: ‘Think Philly’s Zack Baun on Super Soldier Serum.’

“I line up on the edge sometimes,” Baun says. “Other times, I’m off the ball, I can do a bunch of different things in coverage and blitzes. So I think just being overall athletic really has really helped me do a lot of different things and I think it helps Vic (Fangio) scheme some stuff up, too.”

Not only does Reese’s success depend on himself but also on defensive coordinator, Dennard Wilson, and linebacker coaches,  Charlie Bullen and Frank Bush, to work as a team and scheme the best scenarios to maximize Arvell Reese’s skills and talents.

Update (5/5/2026) : A comp that looks good is that of ex-Packer Clay Mathews. They both had relatively low college production, a similar build, both athletic. They both could play inside or outside linebacker. Clay had a very good NFL career and made the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame.

Rd 1 Pick 10 Francis Mauigoa

Mauigoa is a road grader and mauler. The heavy Samoan, with a finishing mentality, will punish defenders. Mauigoa started all 42 games of his Miami career at right tackle, never missing a start. So what is the weakness? The short arms. His arm length is actually not terrible. At 33 and  1/4 it is right at the typical 33 inch threshold. The reason they do not like short arms is that it allows the defensive player to get into the tackles chest before the tackle can hold him off. However some have discounted this apparent guideline including renowned Patriot’s offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia. What he looks for in a tackle are “They have to be smart, they have to be tough, and they have to be athletic enough.” Nothing about arm length. He says that criteria is way overrated. He argues that quick feet, proper hand placement, and leverage are more critical than short-arm measurements.

A PFF study in 2013 opened with the astute observation – ” I quite often see a scouting report where 34” arms are called long, while 33 ¼” arms are considered short by the same scouting service. Look at a ruler and measure out ¾ of an inch. Does it seem logical that such a small distance makes such a big difference in holding off defenders?” The study of tackles from 2010-2012 with available data concluded that it saw no correlation between arm length and performance. However it did admit there are limitations to the study.

Either way the Giants have decided to move Mauigoa inside to the guard position. That is typically done when arm length is a factor. Guard play relies more on power, quick hand placement, and tighter space management rather than the wide reach needed to block speed rushers on the edge. While shorter arms are still a slight disadvantage inside, the reduced space allows players to compensate with superior technique, leverage, and reaction speed.

“We’re going to put him inside at guard,” Schoen said. “He can certainly play tackle. Sometimes we call these schools and get the film, and they have two really good rushers down there in Miami in [Ahkeem] Mesidor and [Rueben] Bain, and to watch the practice film — he’s going against NFL dudes on a daily basis, and doing a really good job, it was pretty impressive. He can certainly always bump back out to tackle at any point. We’re going to start him at guard.”

In the ESPN article Top prospects at 100 different skills, traits they had Mauigoa as the Best anchor: Francis Mauigoa, Miami
Mauigoa has the frame (6-foot-5, 329 pounds) and play strength to drop the anchor on the edges, taking on power rushers. He allowed a pressure rate of just 1.1% in 2025, which tied for second lowest among FBS tackles.

Round 3 Pick 74 Malachi Fields

Malachi Fields is a large big bodied receiver. His perceived weakness is speed as he ran only a 4.61 forty which was the second slowest among wide receivers.

The Giants in 2025 were the 32nd team in terms of passing touchdown percentage in the red zone converting on only 11% of their red zone pass attempts. The top Giant in red zone receptions was the giant tight end Theo Johnson with four on fourteen targets. Theo is 6’6″ and 264 lbs. The Giants could use another large receiver to increase the red zone touchdown percentage.

Speed is not required in the small confines of the red zone. What is useful are the physical traits that Malachi exhibited at the combine. He had a 6.98 3-cone drill and a 4.35 shuttle. The 3-cone and shuttle events are strong indicators of a wide receiver’s ability to make quick cuts, as they specifically measure lateral agility, short-area quickness, and change of direction. These traits are highly valuable in the red zone, where space is condensed and receivers must rely on sudden movements to create separation from defenders. If the athlete can complete the 3-cone drill in under 7.0 seconds, it’s considered a good showing.

Malachi’s 3-cone was the fourth best among wide receievers and tops for a wide receiver his size. His shuttle was fifth best and second best for a wide receiver his size. That short area quickness and large size should make a productive target in the red zone. The ESPN article Top prospects at 100 different skills, traits singled out Malachi as Best on 50-50 balls. They had this to say:

“Fields had 10 contested-catch grabs in 2025 out of 36 total receptions. With the physical profile (6-4, 218 pounds) to box out defensive backs, plus the ball skills to make catches outside his frame, Fields projects as a backside X receiver who will get isolation targets.”

Some of the elite red-zone touchdown receivers were large receivers that excelled in the 3-cone and shuttle drills. They include players such as Brandon Marshall and Mike Evans. If Malachi Fields gets the Giants out of the basement for red zone touchdowns the extra draft picks given up would have been well worth it.

Conclusion

Knute Rockne followed four specific rules when selecting players for his team to ensure they had the right mental makeup for leadership:

No “Swelled Heads”: Arrogant individuals cannot be taught anything.
No Gripers: He would not tolerate “gripers, kickers, or complainers” who disrupted team morale.
No Diversions: He demanded total focus intense  on the task at hand.
No Inferiority Complexes: A player had to believe they were capable of accomplishing their goals.

Besides the skills and physical attributes of these new Giant Players, they for the most part appear to conform to these rules with humility, positive attitude, intense work ethic and confidence. John Harbaugh is known for his love of the game and a Team oriented attitude. In some ways John’s attitude and team direction shares a lot of similarities to Knute Rockne’s approach.

I have to admit I was not initially that happy with the Giant’s draft. To make matters worse the players I had wanted went to our division rivals. However after researching this post I have come around and have a positive feeling about this class and look forward to their building up the team. The Giants have four years remaining to extend ther four decade streak of winning a Super Bowl in consecutive decades. In fact they are the only team in the four major sports to accomplish this.

Rookies welcome to the Giants! Go Big Blue!

Feature Image: Knute Rockne