Anthony Rivardo
The Giants moved on from the best interior defender they’ve had in a decade, and the headlines have all pointed outside ever since. New York traded Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 overall pick, then poured the conversation into an edge group that now features Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Abdul Carter.
The interior is where the math gets harder. Replacing a disruptive three-down anchor with a rotation is a defensible plan, but it is a plan that asks several aging veterans to collectively do what one star did alone.
The strategy is volume, not a star
The Giants didn’t chase a one-for-one swap. They signed nose tackle D.J. Reader to a two-year, $12.5 million deal that can reach $15.5 million through incentives, then layered in Shelby Harris as a 3-technique, added Leki Fotu, claimed Zacch Pickens off waivers from Kansas City, and drafted a nose tackle late.
The approach fits new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s positionless front, which can be described as a rotation built to keep bodies fresh rather than lean on one workhorse.
What the veterans actually bring to the Giants’ defense
Reader anchors the run game, and that is the role he plays well. The catch is the pass rush. In his final season with Detroit, Reader logged 583 snaps, recorded 28 tackles, and finished with zero sacks while posting a 68.9 PFF overall grade, per Pro Football Reference and PFF. He turns 32 this summer.
Harris is the interior’s other key piece, and he is 34. He appeared in all 17 games for Cleveland last year with 32 combined tackles, one sack, and four passes defensed, earning a 64.4 PFF run-defense grade that ranked 28th among interior defenders, per PFF. That is a useful rotational number. It is not a number that replaces a Pro Bowl anchor’s interior pass rush.
| Interior DT | Age (2026) | 2025 sacks | Best trait |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.J. Reader | 32 | 0 | Run-stuffing nose anchor |
| Shelby Harris | 34 | 1 | Rotational 3-tech, bats passes |
| Dexter Lawrence (traded) | 28 | Pro Bowl interior force | Three-down disruption |
The bet the Giants are making
The logic holds together if you grant two things: that the edge trio generates enough pressure to cover an interior with little of its own, and that the front office gets a full, healthy season from two veterans on the wrong side of 30. Burns is coming off a 16.5-sack season and his first All-Pro nod, so the outside production is real. The interior just has a thinner margin for injury than it did when Lawrence ate double teams on every snap.
New York saved cap space and added a first-round pick by making the trade, and on paper, the front is still talented. The run defense should be sturdier with Reader anchoring the middle. Whether this group can collapse a pocket from the inside when the edge gets chipped is the question the season will answer. Volume covers a lot. It does not always cover the absence of a star.
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