The Giants are 5-2-1 and sitting on top of the NFC East, with Thursday Night Football against the Washington Commanders giving them a chance to widen that lead. But beyond the team record, one of the biggest developments in New York has been the rapid rise of Arvell Reese.
The rookie linebacker has looked like a hit from the moment he stepped in, and the conversation around him is getting louder by the week. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell now has Reese as his pick to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, edging out fellow Giants rookie David Bailey.
“Picking between Bailey and Reese is unfair. I leaned Reese if only because he has been two impactful players in one,” Barnwell writes.
That’s the heart of Reese’s case. He’s not just producing in one lane. He’s making noise as an off-ball linebacker, where he’s been effective in coverage and reliable as a tackler, and he’s also bringing real heat as a pass rusher.
The numbers back that up. Reese has 4.5 sacks and 14 pressures this season, and his three-sack performance against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 9 was the kind of outing that made the ceiling impossible to ignore.
Bailey is in the mix too, and the source makes clear he’s worthy of the award conversation. But Reese’s ability to impact the game in multiple ways is what has pushed him to the front of the race right now.
There have been rookie mistakes along the way, as there are with any first-year player, but the overall picture is hard to miss. Reese has already established himself as one of the best rookies in the league, and maybe the best of the bunch so far.
Barnwell’s prediction points to Reese as the Giants’ leading contender for the award, and the early returns suggest New York may have landed a major talent with its first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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For the Giants, that adds another layer to a matchup already carrying some edge because of Washingtons road struggles. A slick field and steady wind can push both teams toward a lower-scoring script, and it also raises the risk of the kind of incidental injuries that often come with sloppy footing and crowded traffic. In a game like this, execution matters even more, and whoever handles the conditions better may end up controlling a matchup that already looked like it could be decided by the smallest of margins. [Read more 🡒]
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Giants Are Forcing A Playoff Debate Nobody Expected So Soon
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John Harbaughs group has also changed the math in a division that looked like it would be fought over by the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. New Yorks playoff probability has climbed to 66 percent, a mark that would have sounded ambitious not long ago, but now feels like a fair reflection of how the Giants have been playing. The bigger question is no longer whether they belong in the mix, but how long they can keep forcing everyone else to treat them like a real contender. [Read more 🡒]