Sixteen of fifty-five pre-draft mock drafts had Caleb Downs going to the Giants.
The Cowboys traded up to #11 — giving Miami picks to do it — because they refused to let New York accidentally stumble into the right pick. Dallas had conviction. They saw the board, identified their guy, and moved. The Giants, picking at #5 and again at #10, had Downs available twice and selected Arvell Reese (edge/LB hybrid, Ohio State) and OT Francis Mauigoa instead. Reese is a versatile chess piece who can rush the edge, drop into coverage, and blitz from multiple alignments — John Harbaugh praised his flexibility effusively — but the Giants’ top-two pre-draft needs were safety and wide receiver, not “flexible linebacker-ish guy.” They addressed neither.
Malik Nabers said what everyone was thinking — watch his live reaction when Dallas took Downs:
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/2047485306627150310
Malik Nabers being publicly disgusted about this is the most relatable thing to happen in the Giants organization in years. He has to line up against Downs twice a season now, every season, for the foreseeable future. In the NFC East. The Cowboys got a potential generational safety prospect and the Giants got a player some NFL executives told Bleacher Report should have been Sonny Styles instead.
The case for Reese isn’t nothing. If Brian Daboll runs a scheme that deploys him creatively — rushing from the interior, walking down as a linebacker, creating genuine pre-snap confusion — there’s a world where this pick looks fine in year three. He has real athletic gifts. The problem is that “fine in year three” is not the standard you apply to a #5 overall selection, and the Giants have been collecting versatile chess pieces for half a decade without ever assembling a coherent board. Trading Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati to get the #10 pick and then using it on an offensive lineman while Caleb Downs sat there is the kind of decision that will live in Giants fan nightmares.
The Cowboys moved up specifically because they believed New York might wake up and grab Downs at #10. That’s the real gut punch — Dallas respected the pick more than the Giants did.
Anyway, welcome to New York, Arvell. Hope you like booing.