Our Favorite 2026 Giants Draft Pick, and Our Reasons Why

It’s hard to find anyone who thought poorly of the New York Giants’ latest draft haul to give Big Blue anything lower than a grade of B+, but if there is one pick that seems to be generating a lot of buzz given where he was selected, it’s the team’s third of three sixth-round picks, BYU linebacker Jack Kelly.  

Typically, by the time a team gets to the sixth round of the draft, those players selected become something of a crap shoot.  

But with Kelly, who is the fifth player from BYU to be drafted by the Giants, they just seem to have picked up a player who has a certain throwback era aura to him, a grittiness to his game that, upon first glance, makes one wonder how well he might have fit in with the old school linebackers of yesteryear who wore the Giants' helmet.  

While Kelly, on paper at least, just seems like another in a long line of inside linebackers the team added for special teams, there are a few reasons why, with all apologies to the Giants’ other picks, he is our favorite draft pick.

Pass Rushing Potential

No, the Giants didn’t need another linebacker, but when you can find a value pick that offers more than just special teams value–more on that in a moment–you’d better take him and not think twice about it.

In Kelly’s case, he offers upside as a situational pass rusher. Per PFF, Kelly delivered 128 quarterback pressures on 576 pass-rush snaps over his four-year career at Weber State and BYU. That’s a 22.2% pressure rate.

Kelly, who is a good enough blitzer, also had at least 28 pressures per season and finished his stint at BYU having recorded 10 sacks.

He might not develop into a starter given the guys in front of him, but there is little doubt that the Giants upgraded the depth at the linebacker position, which was sorely lacking last year.  

Throwback Linebacker