Alexander Wilson
Brian Burns did not need to say much to make the point land. When a pass rusher with his talent looks at Tremaine Edmunds and Arvell Reese and starts talking about how scary the duo looks, the Giants should probably lean into it.
The Giants have spent years trying to patch the middle of the defense with effort, hope, and players who could do a few things well but rarely changed the geometry of the field. Edmunds and Reese at least give them a different physical picture.
Edmunds is 6-foot-4 and 251 pounds. Reese is 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds with 4.46 speed. Put them behind the defensive front together and the middle of the field feels a lot less comfortable.
The Giants linebacker plan looks different
Reese finished his final college season with 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, and the kind of athletic profile that made the Giants comfortable taking him near the top of the draft. He was always more than an edge-only idea, even if the Micah Parsons comparisons made that angle easy.
The Giants have been working him next to Edmunds, and the early reviews have centered on the same things: size, range, coverage ability, and the ability to close space before the offense gets comfortable.
Assistant GM Brandon Brown has compared the pairing to rim protectors in basketball, and I like that analogy because it actually explains the value. The point goes beyond tackling; it is shrinking throwing windows, making quarterbacks hesitate, and turning simple middle-of-field throws into contested decisions.
The nickname is funny, the fit is serious
The Predator and Baby Predator labels will get the social-media love, and that is fine. Football should have some personality. The more important part is whether Dennard Wilson can use both players without making either one predictable.
Edmunds can steady the front as the veteran MIKE, while Reese gives the defense a young missile who can drop, blitz, scrape, and chase. If both can hold up in coverage, the Giants suddenly have a linebacker room that can help the pass rush instead of simply cleaning up after it.
That would be a real shift. The Giants do not need the nickname to become a weekly thing, but they absolutely need the middle of the defense to feel bigger, faster, and meaner than it has in years.
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