For the next four days, until the Giants preseason game against the Jets ends Friday night, Arvell Reese will be in the spotlight because of David Bailey, the decision by the Jets to pass on him at No. 2 overall in April and the decision by the Giants to pick Reese three spots later.
But in the context of the current training camp, Reese has already solidified himself as a critical piece of the Giants defense and continued to impress, adding another two total tackles during their preseason game Saturday.
Reese sits second among defensive rookies for the best PFF grade through two preseason games (88.2), trailing just the Buccaneers’ Rueben Bain Jr. (88.8).
“He hasn’t really missed a beat at all,” coach John Harbaugh said. “He learns very quickly, and he executes the defenses really well. And then when he doesn’t, he listens to every word of the coaching and applies it on the next opportunity. He’s making a lot of progress real fast.”
Reese has already settled into his role at inside linebacker alongside Tremaine Edmunds, two new additions to the Giants defense that dominated during last week’s joint practice in Miami.
But the next test and learning experience, Harbaugh said, will occur when Reese starts playing regular-season games.
“So, after that [Cowboys] game [in Week 1], I think it’ll be a big step for him as far as, ‘Oh, OK, this is kind of how I need to approach this,’ ” Harbaugh said.
After the Giants practiced Monday, Harbaugh spent time meeting with his leadership group — voted on by players — on the field.
Jaxson Dart, Jameis Winston, Brian Burns, Chris Manhertz, Jordan Stout, Andrew Thomas and Jevón Holland were the representatives spotted.
Harbaugh had a leadership group with the Ravens, he said, and while he wants players to feel like they can go to anyone in the organization, the collection of players can serve as an outlet if something is on a teammate’s mind.
“Just in-house stuff,” Harbaugh said of their meeting Monday. “It really isn’t anything that I want to share and it’s nothing that would be very interesting, I don’t think. Just schedules and things like that, what they prefer to do, what they would rather do.”
Harbaugh joked that they asked for a pool table Monday and he replied, “We might get a golf simulator if we win enough games.”
When asked about trading offensive lineman Daniel Faalele to the Jaguars last week for a sixth-round pick, Harbaugh said that adding late-round picks “is a valuable thing” that might not matter now — but will when Day 3 of the draft comes around.
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In April, the Giants had only three picks on the final day of the draft, all of those occurring in the sixth round.
“I mean, if we could, we’d do it as much as we possibly could,” Harbaugh said when asked if the Giants would continue to explore trades over the next couple of weeks. “We’d like to take advantage of the opportunities, if they’ll come up, as much as we can. We do have some guys. We’re kind of deep in a few positions, and maybe that’ll happen. It doesn’t happen that often, but maybe it will.”
RT Jermaine Eluemunor and RG Francis Mauigoa (stinger) are expected to return Tuesday after not practicing Monday.
TE Theo Johnson exited after a collision, but Harbaugh expected him to be OK.
