One New York Giants rookie who could win a starting job out of camp
With teams on their month-long break from mid-June to mid-July in between minicamp and training camp, we’ve reached the deadest point of the NFL offseason.
But fortunately for football fans, there’s just three weeks left before training camp kicks off, followed by the preseason and regular season, which starts the week of Sept. 7.
Until then, we’ve done training camp previews and analyzed the top position battle to watch for all 32 teams. Next up in our offseason series is looking at one rookie from every team who could win a starting job in training camp this season, and today we’re looking at the New York Giants.
New York’s 2026 Draft Class
- Arvell Reese, LB, Round 1
- Francis Mauigoa, OT, Round 1
- Colton Hood, CB, Round 2
- Malachi Fields, WR, Round 3
- Bobby Jamison-Travis, DT, Round 6
- J.C. Davis, OT, Round 6
- Jack Kelly, LB, Round 6
It’s likely that both Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa could start next season given the Giants’ need for help at both their positions and their high draft value.
But because Malik Nabers’ status for next season is still unknown, and New York lost Wan’dale Robinson to the Tennessee Titans during free agency, finding reliable targets for second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart to throw to is why Malachi Fields might have the best shot of winning a starting job by Week 1.
Depending on how his recovery from core muscle surgery goes, Darius Slayton could lock down one of the Giants’ wide receiver spots. But opposite Slayton is a hodge-podge of unknowns and gambles.
No one really knows just how much Odell Beckham Jr. has left in the tank at age 33 coming off a serious injury.
Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Braxton Berrios, Isaiah Hodgins, Jalin Hyatt, and Ryan Miller have all had varying degrees of NFL success, but there’s a reason none of them have a clear-cut WR1 or WR2 role heading into camp. It’s also possible one or more of that group could find themselves on the wrong side of cutdown day.
Fields was drafted to fill a Plaxico Burress-type role for this offense. He’s 6-foot-4, 223 pounds, and he plays with an edge. Fields thrives in contested-catch situations and wins way more jump balls than he loses.
He can also be a deep threat down the field. Fields averaged 17.5 yards per catch at Notre Dame last year, and he posted back-to-back seasons of 50 or more catches and 800 or more yards in 2023 and 2024.
If Nabers misses any significant time, look for Fields to emerge as an early go-to target for Dart.
