Daniel Jeremiah’s Pick for Giants at No. 5 Changes the Draft Board

While most experts have the Giants locked on defense, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah is going in a different direction for a specific reason.

Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Carnell Tate catches a ball during Pro Day for NFL scouts at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center on March 25, 2026. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As the countdown to the 2026 NFL Draft is reaching the end, the final window before round one is always crazy, as different draft analysts scramble to gain their last sprinkle of insights on how the first 32 selections on the board could pan out.

With Thursday’s opening night on the horizon, most draft minds appear to be reaching a consensus on the New York Giants targeting a premier defensive prospect to serve as the golden chess piece in new head coach John Harbaugh’s defense.

At the forefront of that designation has been linebacker Sonny Styles or safety Caleb Downs, two Ohio State products the Giants could feasibly target to become a much-needed lynchpin at the second or third level, who struggled in coverage and against the run last season.

Not according to NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, however, as he has started to come around to a different perspective on where the Giants could go in the first round.

Instead of focusing purely on the defensive trend, Jeremiah is leaning towards a top playmaker on the other side of the ball to help satisfy one of the less talked about needs across the Giants roster at the No. 5 pick.

“When the Giants talked about Malik Nabers going into training camp and as we get closer to next season, I’m sitting here with alarm bells going off,” Jeremiah said in an appearance on “The Path to the Draft” show on NFL Network.

WR feels like a real possibility for the Giants at 5 pic.twitter.com/7bNE9JcJBw

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) April 13, 2026

“Wan’Dale Robinson is gone, and you brought in [Isaiah] Likely, who I like coming over with Harbaugh, who is familiar with him. They need some weapons on the perimeter for Jaxson Dart, and that’s why I think Carnell Tate will be in the discussion.

“I have a higher grade on [Jeremiah] Love…but Tate is my sixth guy, and this is looking more and more like a real need here for the Giants in the wide receiver position.

“Tate is a complete receiver, somebody who can make plays down the field and has a big catch radius. If Nabers is back healthy, that would be a nice 1-2 punch.”

Is Wide Receiver Still in the Giants’ Cards After the Dexter Lawrence Trade?

Sep 28, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (97) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

An honest examination of the Giants’ receiving corps would reveal that they’ve taken good strides to restock what was practically a one-man show after Nabers went down with the ACL injury in Week 4.

Robinson did exit for Tennessee after his first 1,000-yard season with the Giants, but he was replaced with a few slot-capable players in Calvin Austin, Darnell Mooney, and Likely, who can each play in different spots across the scheme that Harbaugh is looking to run.

Still, the one area that has cost the Giants a ton over the past couple of seasons is drops, for which their unit was not immune in 2025, coughing up 23 targets.ers was their most reliable pass catcher when it came time to need big catches to advance drives towards a score, and that impact was felt as soon as he went down.

There is no guarantee that Nabers, while he has been participating in the Giants’ voluntary offseason program, will be ready to go by the season opener in September, leaving a need for another X-type receiver with the same clutch hands to fill the role and eventually be his running mate downfield as the year progresses.

A guy like Tate would make a lot of sense for that job, given he boasts arguably the best hands of any prospect in the class and the highest contested catch rate thanks to the length he uses to his advantage. The other thing is that the Giants aren’t likely to go that direction at No. 5.

As mentioned already, the Giants need to emphasize the defense, which was the greater problem in the team’s inability to win more games than they did last season.

One of Sonny Styles or Caleb Downs figures to be the choice they go at the first draw, unless Joe Schoen shocks everyone again with a trade down to acquire even more draft capital.

If the Giants hold and grab one of those two Buckeyes players, it wouldn’t be a stunning move if they shifted away from receiver and attacked a top rookie replacement for Dexter Lawrence after he was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick late Saturday.

Lawrence has left a crater in the middle of the defensive front, and the Giants don’t really have a legitimate answer behind him at nose tackle. We could see them signing a veteran very soon, like a D.J. Reader or Shelby Harris, and then poaching one of the few elite names at the position in the 2026 class (Peter Woods is one to watch).

Perhaps there are other plans we don’t know yet, including the Giants pushing defensive tackle down to their 105th overall pick and targeting a pass catcher like Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson, who has recently been tied to the franchise amid New York attending his private workout in Tempe this past week.

By now holding two top 10 picks in the first round, the Giants are ready to carry significant weight in how that range of picks could unfold on Thursday night. A few months ago, the receiver felt their biggest issue was, but how quickly that thinking has changed.

One can’t totally ignore what Jeremiah says when he is as tuned into all the rumors as any other draft analyst, but it’s a confident bet to go with the Giants tackling defense first and then seeing how the board moves.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.