Why Giants let Cowboys get potential superstar in NFL Draft

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May 12, 2026 - 13:03

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Why Giants let Cowboys get potential superstar in NFL Draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The New York Giants had a chance to get one of the best players in the 2026 NFL Draft with the No. 10 overall pick.

They had already taken Arvell Reese at No. 5, and Caleb Downs slid past a few other interested squads to get to the Giants' second pick of the first round.

The Giants didn't choose the safety out of Ohio State, though. The Dallas Cowboys actually were worried enough about that possibility that they tried to trade up to No. 9 to beat the Giants to Downs.

"The Cowboys had tried to trade up to No. 9 to get Downs, fearful that the Giants would take him," ESPN's Dan Graziano wrote in a new article on Tuesday. "New York could have come out of the first round of the draft feeling like it had locked down two defensive cornerstones for a decade to come."

The Giants instead took offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa from Miami. The Cowboys only had to trade up one spot, from 12 to 11, to ensure they got Downs.

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Why did the Giants let the Cowboys draft Caleb Downs?

New York knew that whoever it passed on might help its division rival, but the Giants felt they had to do right by Jaxson Dart.

They had already taken one defensive player with the fifth pick, so they went offense at No. 10.

"I think there's a chance they'd have taken Downs at No. 5 if Reese had been picked in the top four," Graziano writes. "But what became clear to me after the draft in talking to people around that situation is that the Giants were determined to use one of their two top-10 picks on an offensive player in an effort to support second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart."

One of Dart's issues as a rookie was staying out of harm's way, and if the Mauigoa pick works, it will be a big help toward that cause.

They'll just have to hope Downs isn't wreaking too much havoc on the other side of those NFC East showdowns.