The New York Giants had an opportunity to make some waves with two top-10 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers made some, too, with his reaction to Big Blue's approach on Thursday.
Nabers appeared on a Bleacher Report livestream during Round 1 and commented on both of the Giants' picks -- linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 5 overall and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa at No. 10.
"Don't get me wrong," Nabers said, via , "I love [Reese] the player but just like [co-host Micah Parsons] said, where does he play? You want to be on the outside and rush but we just drafted someone last year to that same position."
After the Mauigoa selection, he added: "I'd rather get [Caleb Downs] than play against him. I even told him, I said, 'I'm coming to get you.'"
Following the draft's culmination, head coach John Harbaugh spoke to reporters and shrugged away any concerns he might have with Nabers' public opinions.
"We had a great conversation with that," Harbaugh said. "Like came in the next morning, sat up there and we were talking about it. He made himself clear. It's like you even said, if you go back and you watch it, I appreciate kind of where he's coming from. I mean, you're in a podcast, you're talking ball and he's just like, well, how do they got to use the guy? How's he going to play? ... It's like he said, 'I was curious about how you're going to use him.'
"And I showed him how we're going to use him and he's fired up about it, but I appreciate it."
To be fair to Nabers, others witnessed New York's embarrassment of riches at linebacker and had similar thoughts. The New Orleans Saints, for example, were reported by NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport to have pursued pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux in a trade before pivoting to acquire Tyree Wilson from the Las Vegas Raiders.
Thibodeaux, himself a first-round pick in 2022, is joined by last year's first-rounder Abdul Carter and New York's 2025 sack leader Brian Burns on the edge.
Harbaugh explained how Reese was likely to fit into the equation in his Thursday news conference after drafting him, telling reporters he would play at inside linebacker but be moved around due to his versatility.
"Our defense is pretty flexible, position-less you might call it," Harbaugh said, per the team transcript. "We'll have an opportunity to move those guys around. But 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. He'll be moving around with all of our guys."
The Giants therefore made the best pick they could at fifth overall to fortify a flexible approach to making stops. Harbaugh explained the vision to Nabers in a way that assuaged any concerns, and he was likewise comforted by his conversations with the star wide receiver.
"One thing that you'll kind of probably see as we go here, we don't get too worried about stuff," Harbaugh said. "As long as the person's heart is in the right place, as long as the person really cares ... and you really want what's best for everybody and he's got a good heart and it's coming from a good place, say what you think. Put it out there.
"We talk all the time about confronting everything that has to do with our football team. And so Malik wants to know how we're going to use our first-round pick. I want to show him. I want to explain it to him. The fact that he says it publicly, who cares? I know fans are probably thinking the same thing."
Nabers, for his part, had already taken to social media to clear the air Thursday night.
"First off, we have to stop overreacting," his . "I would never intentionally take away from the biggest moment/night of Arvell's life. Very excited to see him play on the team and happy that we have another dawg on the squad!!"
As far as Harbaugh's first draft with the Giants and Nabers' perspective of it, any consternation by fans or pundits looking on was much ado about nothing.
Downs could still cause some problems for his newfound rival in the Giants overall, though -- after expressing a disinterest in playing against him, Nabers will now have to do so twice a year after the Dallas Cowboys traded up to get him.
