The hoped-for (by me, anyway) filling in of some glaring positional weaknesses on the New York Giants roster in free agency this year has not thus far happened. There’s still time, but at this point it’s fair to start looking at the draft to fill those remaining holes.
The good news: Despite trading up last year to get Jaxson Dart, the Giants still have seven picks in this year’s draft.
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The bad news: Three of those picks are in Round 6, so realistically the Giants have only four chances to fill out their starting offense and defense in this way. Or do they?
Here are the Giants draft picks:
The Giants got Miami’s sixth-round pick for Darren Waller and a seventh-round pick. Giving up the seventh was conditional on Waller’s performance, but he didn’t come anywhere near the 50 receptions required, so it wound up being a simple pick swap. The sixth from Dallas was the result of a similar 7-6 pick swap for defensive lineman Jordan Phillips.
The glass-half-full view of things is that sixth-round picks are better than seventh rounders, and as a consequence of both Miami’s and Dallas’ poor showing last season, both acquired picks are at least in the top half of the round. In reality there’s not much difference between the two rounds.
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The question is: Are those sixth-round picks worth anything? Often, players selected at the end of the draft are taken largely for their special team potential rather than what they can realistically contribute on offense or defense. More and more these days, they are also currency for pick swaps like the ones that got the Giants these two extra picks in the first place. Can we hope, though, that at least one of them might fill a positional hole?
The Baltimore Ravens, as we know, are the kings of compensatory picks. If you look at their draft history, you’ll see some ridiculous (in a good way) things:
2025: 5 Round 6 picks
2024: 2 Round 4 picks, 2 Round 7 picks
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2022: 6 Round 4 picks (including now-Giants Isaiah Likely and Jordan Stout)
2021: 2 Round 3 picks, 3 Round 5 picks
2020: 4 Round 3 picks
Not all of those were comp picks, and most of them didn’t amount to anything, but in the Ravens’ philososphy, the more swings you take the more chances of finding a useful player. Bobby Gould, formerly of the Washington Commanders’ Hogs Haven SB Nation site, tracked down the fates of all the Ravens’ comp picks over the years several years ago. Among their Round 6 comp picks, Bradley Bozeman (2018) became their starting center and Ryan Jensen (2013) became a Pro Bowl tackle. The bottom line is that John Harbaugh should feel right at home on Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft when Round 6 rolls around.
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How many players drafted in Round 6 or 7 go on to have solid NFL careers? I’ll use the Pro Football Reference weighted Approximate Value (wAV) metric as a rough guide. No metric is perfect, but wAV tries to assess how useful a player has been to his team over the course of seasons and careers, blending availability and achievement and weighted to emphasize peak production years more highly. My subjective assessment of their wAV scores is that a player who averages roughly wAV = 5 or better for his career has been a starting-caliber player, while wAV ~ 3 per year is a player who has at least been somewhat useful.
Let’s look at recent drafts to see how many Round 6 and 7 draftees wound up being worth something as NFL players. I list kickers and punters, but let’s focus the discussion just on every-down offensive and defensive players. The numbers in parentheses are the number of non-kicker/punter players for that year.
2025 (6)
This turns out to have been a lean year for Round 6 and 7 draftees, although it’s fair to assume that Day 3 draftees often need more than a rookie season to come into their own and contribute significantly.
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wAV = 6: Kyle Monangai (RB, CHI); Jacory Croskey-Merritt (RB, WAS)
wAV = 3: Tyler Loop (K, BAL); R.J. Mickens (S, LAC); Jeremy Crawshaw (K, DEN); Brashard Smith (RB, KC); Tez Johnson (WR, TB); Connor Colby (G, SF)
Monangai and Croskey-Merritt were important pieces to their teams’ offenses in their rookie year, each of them racking up more than 800 rushing yards. Mickens played 239 coverage snaps with a 40% catch rate against and 2 INTs. Johnson had 322 receiving yards and 5 TDs.
Still, out of 81 Round 6 and 7 draftees, that’s only 8 significant contributors.
2024 (7)
The farther back we go the more the one-year wonders get filtered out, but also the more that previous late round picks start to work their way into lineups. We require total wAV = 6 or more to make the list, 10 or more for starter-quality.
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wAV = 10: Jonah Laulu (DT, LV)
wAV = 6-9: Cam Little (K, JAX); Darius Muasau (LB, NYG); Will Reichard (K, MIN); Kimani Vidal (RB, LAC); Malik Washington (WR, MIA); Christian Mahogany (G, DET); Beaux Limmer (G, LAR); Devaughn Vele (WR, DEN)
Laulu was drafted by the Colts but didn’t make the final cut; the Raiders picked him up and he became a starter, but his PFF grades have been about the same as DLs on the Giants other than Dexter Lawrence. Darius Muasau is kind of a poster child for some of these late picks – forced into action out of necessity after an injury to a starter but not actually starting-caliber. Malik Washington and Devaughn Vele have been useful part-time starters for Miami and Denver, respectively, putting up numbers similar to Giants’ wide receivers not named Malik or Wan’Dale. Vidal became part of the RB rotation for the Chargers in year 2 and has played well. Limmer had a decent rookie season and then fell out of favor. The one that got away in the minds of Giants fans is Christian Mahogany. Mahogany became a starter at left guard in his second season; he’s been adequate in run blocking but somewhat subpar in pass blocking (6 sacks). Still, given the Giants’ current depth at G…
2023 (10)
After 3 seasons, we require wAV = 9 or more to make the list, 15 or more for starter-quality.
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wAV = 15: Parker Washington (WR, JAX)
wAV = 9-14: Scott Matlock (DT/FB, LAC); Dee Winters (LB, SF); DeMario Douglas (WR, NE); Jaylon Jones (CB, IND); Kayshon Boutte (WR, NE); Dante Stills, DT, ARI); Carrington Valentine (S, GB); Bryce Barrington (P, NE); Andre Iosivas (WR, CIN); Andrew Vorhees (G, BAL)
Washington played little as a rookie, more in year 2, and then broke out last season with 954 receiving yards and 5 TDs. Matlock started as a DT but became the Chargers’ version of Patrick Ricard, a 296-pound FB. Winters played little as a rookie, more as a sophomore, and became the starting WILL linebacker for the 49ers in Year 3. The Patriots have two WRs from 2023 Round 6 who now make big contributions. Douglas has been a consistent 500-600 yard receiver for them in his three years. Boutte, whose draft stock plummeted his final year at LSU for a variety of reasons, played little as a rookie and more so as a second- and third year player, now matching Douglas’ production. Jones began as a CB but has moved to SS; he became a starter in Year 2 but was plagued by a recurring hamstring injury last year. Stills has been a rotational DT and DE for the Cardinals but has been at best average in his play. Valentine has been a part-time starter at S for the Packers but he too has been only average. Iosivas has been a rotational receiver for the Bengals but has seen more playing time in his second and third seasons.
Vorhees is a poster child for the Ravens’ approach to acquiring players. He’s the offensive lineman who famously tore his ACL at the NFL Combine but completed 38 bench press reps anyway the next morning. He’d been projected as a Round 2-4 pick; the Ravens got him in Round 7. He sat out 2023, played some in 2024, and became a starter at LG in 2025, although his play has been slightly below average to date.
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2022 (8)
This brings us to the beginning of the Joe Schoen era as Giants GM. We now require wAV = 12 or more to make the list and wAV = 20 or more for starters. By this point the true gems have clearly been identified.
wAV >/= 20: Brock Purdy (QB, SF), Rasheed Walker (OT, GB), Isiah Pacheco (RB, KC)
wAV = 12-19: Christian Benford (CB, BUF); Jamaree Salyer (OT, LAC); Jaylen Watson (CB, KC); Vederian Lowe (OT, MIN); Malcolm Rodriguez (LB, DET)
Purdy is just ridiculous. For Mr. Irrelevant to not only become a starting NFL QB but to lead his team to within a Patrick Mahomes overtime drive of a Super Bowl ring is something I do not expect to ever see again. Walker is somewhat similar to Jermaine Eluemunor – good pass blocker, mediocre run blocker. That dropped his draft stock at Penn State but he became a starter by his second year. Pacheco started out on fire but by year three his role had diminshed in the Chiefs’ offense. Benford became a starter in his second year and has had two really good seasons although 2025 was a disappointment. Salyer was a starter his first two years but then was relegated to backup. Watson gradually evolved into a starter by his third year and has been a slightly above average defender. Lowe left the Vikings after one season and became a starter for New England by year 3 but left this year for the 49ers. His play has been below average. Rodriguez has been a rotational LB for the Lions and has had an up-and-down career.
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It’s worth noting that this final group of players reached the end of their rookie contracts at the finish of the 2025 season. The majority of them did not re-sign with the team that drafted them, but they all remain in the league. Purdy, Benford, and Rodriguez are the exceptions among the offensive/defensive players.
That doesn’t mean that the other players were not useful draft picks. Each one played a significant role for his team, though some not until their second or third years. The sobering thought, though, is that this four year list of 31 players is at best about 10% of the total number of players drafted in Rounds 6 and 7.
Maybe we can learn something about positions to target in the late rounds, though. Here are the breakdowns of the 31 players by position:
QB – 1
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RB – 5
WR – 7
TE – 0
OT – 3
G – 4
Edge – 0
DT – 3
LB – 3
CB – 3
S – 2
One clear message is not to expect to find any gems at edge defender or tight end, or realistically at quarterback, in the final two rounds. Guards and running backs, and surprisingly even offensive tackles, should not be ruled out late in the draft. The big message, though, is that 1-2 wide receivers who become useful, even good, NFL players can still be sitting there late on Day 3. The Patriots just made the Super Bowl with two sixth-round Wwide receivers as key parts of their offense.
Another message is that Rounds 6 and 7 are the time to take chances. John Harbaugh’s previous team did that with Voorhees and he became a starter for them, albeit a middling one. Who among Giants fans has forgotten the 2021 draft, when Dave Gettleman (and every other team) repeatedly passed on guard Trey Smith because of his problem with pulmonary emboli? Smith is now five years into his career as a two-time Pro Bowl guard in the NFL, and everyone knew it could happen but was afraid to take the chance. With three sixth-round picks this year, it’s time for the Giants to take at least one chance on someone who has dropped on the big boards for some reason but might turn out to be a great value. Just ask John Harbaugh.