Another year, another lost season for the New York Giants, whose focus has been on the 2026 NFL Draft since November. The pre-draft process is still a couple of months away, but the Giants’ front office still needs to keep a close eye on the 2025-2026 College Football Playoffs.
Assuming Joe Schoen does not lose his job in the spring, the upcoming draft will be his final straw. Schoen has been hit-or-miss in the draft with the Giants, but saying that he is on thin ice would be sugarcoating his situation. No general manager will be under a thicker microscope than Schoen will be in the coming months.
A lot will change before April, including the Giants’ next full-time head coach, who will have a say in the draft process. Regardless, a few holes in the current roster are fairly cut-and-dry.
Every New York Giants fan should be getting excited watching these nine players in the 2025-2026 College Football Playoffs, with the hope that they will join the Big Blue in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Ohio State WR Carnell Tate
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The most popular name associated with the Giants in early 2026 mock drafts has been Arizona State receiver Jordyn Tyson, with the sole purpose of giving Jaxson Dart another elite weapon to work with. Tyson is the college teammate of running back Cam Skattebo and seems to be the clear-cut top receiver of the class.
However, Arizona State is not in this year’s College Football Playoff. That leaves Ohio State’s Carnell Tate as the best receiver prospect entering the playoffs. The Giants should be interested in the sure-handed Tate for all the same reasons they should be looking at Tyson. If Schoen goes in a different direction in round one, Tate would be a very intriguing Day Two prospect.
Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez
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There is no better linebacker in college football than Jacob Rodriguez, whose draft stock has skyrocketed over the last four months. Rodriguez is still not viewed as the No. 1 linebacker of the class, but a strong performance in the College Football Playoffs could turn him into a first-rounder.
Scouts knock Rodriguez for his lack of physical attributes, but that is exactly what they said about Cam Skattebo, who has quickly become one of the most important players on the Giants’ roster. Any NFL fan watching the 2024-2025 playoffs would have loved to see Skattebo on their team. Rodriguez could be this year’s version of that same arc.
The higher the stakes are, the better Rodriguez seems to play. Nobody plays with more energy and passion on the field than J-Rod, who will help any NFL team in 2026.
Oregon G Emmanuel Pregnon
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The Giants’ offensive line has improved in 2025, but it is still far from perfect. While Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor have set the edges, the interior line has not been as strong. Guard figures to be one of New York’s biggest offseason needs, particularly with 35-year-old Greg Van Roten set to hit free agency.
Oregon’s Emmanuel Pregnon is currently slated as the best guard on most scouts’ boards of the College Football Playoff field. Pregnon is the second-highest-rated guard in the country on Pro Football Focus, only behind Iowa’s Beau Stephens. The former Wyoming and USC transfer has allowed just three pressures all year and zero sacks.
Fans do not typically turn on football games to watch offensive linemen, but Pregnon should unequivocally be a player that Schoen and the Giants are keeping an eye on.
Indiana CB D’Angelo Ponds
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Despite spending $54 million on Paulson Adebo in the 2025 offseason, expect the Giants to select another one in the 2026 NFL Draft. There will be a few potential candidates in the College Football Playoff, but none better than Indiana’s D’Angelo Ponds.
At 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, Ponds is undersized, but he makes up for it with his physicality and speed. After a breakout season in 2024, Ponds has been even better in 2025 to earn his second first-team All-Big Ten designation in as many years.
The Giants might not be willing to invest in a cornerback early, but Ponds is still a player to monitor in the College Football Playoffs. With Deonte Banks’ tenure all but over, replacing him with a player like Ponds would be the ideal scenario.
Ohio State LB Sonny Styles
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Linebacker was the only defensive position the Giants did not address in the 2025 offseason, and they paid for that decision greatly. New York’s run defense is arguably the worst in the league and has only been worsened by injuries to Micah McFadden, Darius Muasau and Demmetrius Flannigan-Fowles.
McFadden and Muasau will return in 2026, along with captain Bobby Okereke, but the Giants desperately need to add a stout run-stopper to the group. Enter Ohio State’s Sonny Styles, whose 81 tackles in 2025 spearheaded the nation’s best defense.
Styles’ athleticism, vision and pursuit are among the best in college football and make him a potential day one starter in the NFL. Styles, who was initially recruited as a safety, gives up some size, but his athleticism truly flies off the charts and is hard to miss on the screen. He is on the shortlist of players whose stocks could rise the most in the College Football Playoffs and NFL Combine.
Ole Miss DT Zxavian Harris
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As dominant as Dexter Lawrence II is as a pass-rusher, he is only average against the run, which is where the Giants’ main problems are up front. Pass-rushing is the only strength of a defense that lacks structure at every other position and has been void of a hole-plugging run-stopper in the trenches for years.
There will be better defensive tackle prospects in April, but Ole Miss’ Zxavian Harris is an intriguing prospect to keep tabs on in the playoffs. Dart’s former teammate accepted an increased role after Walter Nolen and J.J. Pegues left for the NFL and became a solid prospect in his own right over the last year.
The 6-foot-7, 320-pound Harris already has NFL size, and he backs it up with physical play and surprisingly impressive athleticism. If Ole Miss is going to overcome the Lane Kiffin fiasco in the playoffs, Harris and the Rebels’ defense play a big role in it.
Ohio State S Caleb Downs
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The Giants are set at safety for the coming years with Jevon Holland and Tyler Nubin, but a generational player like Caleb Downs cannot get overlooked. If a player like Downs somehow falls into Schoen’s hands, the prospect of a Holland-Downs safety tandem would excite even the most stubborn naysayers in East Rutherford.
Downs, at this point, is already a surefire first-rounder. Barring a career-altering injury, he will be the first safety taken in the draft and could be a top-10 pick, depending on how his pre-draft goes. It is never easy to label anyone as a lock, but Downs is easily the best safety prospect to enter the draft in years.
Even if they do not end up with the No. 1 pick, the Giants will still be in the top five. That might be too high for Downs, but given the chatter of Schoen potentially trading down, he could be someone the front office targets in the back half of the top 15.
Oklahoma K Tate Sandell
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The Giants’ kicker conundrum has been so bad that the team almost has no choice but to consider taking one in the 2026 NFL Draft. Should he forgo his final season of eligibility and enter the draft, Oklahoma’s Tate Sandell will be one of the few kickers in draft consideration.
The 2025 Lou Groza Award winner hit 95.8 percent of his field goals in 2025 and all 32 of his extra points, with his only miss coming against Michigan in Week 2. Sandell’s stellar season included a perfect 7-for-7 from beyond 50 yards, making a 50-yard kick in five of the Sooners’ 12 regular season games.
The Giants will have plenty of other players to evaluate — including fan favorite Kansei Matsuzawa from Hawaii — but Sandell is statistically the best kicker in college football and will be kicking on the biggest stage. If there is any team most likely to draft a kicker in 2026, it is New York.
Alabama C Parker Brailsford
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Among the big-name stars in the 2025-2026 College Football Playoffs, it can be easy to overlook a player like Parker Brailsford, who has done a little bit of everything in his four-year career. Brailsford has flown under the radar for most of his career as a three-star recruit out of Scottsdale, Arizona, but he embodies consistency and leadership better than any player in the draft.
The physical numbers might not be there for Brailsford, but he has been the anchor of every offensive line he has ever graced. Brailsford transferred to Alabama after being a focal point of Washington’s 2023 Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line and has started all 26 games in the last two years for the Tide.
Brailsford, who has only allowed one sack in 2025, could benefit from a year behind John Michael Schmitz before potentially taking the reins in 2027. He brings a rare combination of punch and lateral quickness that Schmitz lacks in pass-protection.
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