Jihad Ward is returning to the Giants. Playing with the team from 2022-23, Ward is coming back after being signed off the Vikings’ practice squad (per The Ringer’s Tom Pelissero).
This move comes after the Giants lost Brian Burns to an ACL tear. Ward started 20 games during his previous Giants stay and worked as a 12-game Titans starter — under now-Giants DC Dennard Wilson — last season. John Harbaugh said (via Fox Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano) Burns’ injury will also likely pave the way for more rush opportunities for Arvell Reese — a hybrid prospect the Giants had stashed at inside linebacker due to their EDGE depth to start the season.
Certainly a distant No. 2 for in-season business conducted by these two franchises this season (behind Monday’s J.J. McCarthy trade), Ward’s Minnesota-to-New York move will give Wilson’s defense more options at outside linebacker.
Though, the Giants are uniquely positioned to handle a major injury at this position due to their volume of top-five picks with these skills. Kayvon Thibodeaux should be expected to work extensively with Abdul Carter at OLB post-Burns, though the Giants also have Chauncey Golston and now Ward rostered.
This is an interesting move considering Reese’s prized skillset. The Ohio State product spent most of his final college season as an off-ball linebacker, but he went in the top five because of EDGE potential. The Giants stationed Reese alongside Tremaine Edmunds at ILB because of their numbers at the higher-profile position, but Harbaugh acknowledged the rookie’s pass-rushing traits when asked if Burns’ injury would affect Reese’s role.
“Yeah, I think you can move him around,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “It’s another bonus for Arvell. A lot of people thought he was an edge guy. He’s been on the edge already so he’ll show up in there.”
Reese said early this offseason he preferred to begin his NFL career as a pure edge rusher. The price difference between the league’s top edges and off-ball LBs has never been wider, making a Micah Parsons-like shift appealing for prospects who have that rare capability of making such a transition. Will Anderson Jr. became the NFL’s first non-quarterback to secure a $50MM-per-year contract; meanwhile, Fred Warner is the league’s highest-paid ILB at $21MM AAV. The ILB AAV ceiling has barely moved this decade, highlighting the split between the two positions.
Reese is a long way away from top-market extension aspirations, but being chosen fifth overall (after both the Jets and Titans considered him earlier in the draft), high hopes are clearly present on the Giants’ part. Reese has logged 139 snaps as an off-ball ‘backer thus far, comprising most of his work sample to date. The intriguing rookie does have two tackles for loss and one quarterback hit through three games. How Wilson deploys the youngest of the Giants’ three top-five LB picks will be a key storyline from a big-picture angle.
As for Ward, he comes back to the Big Apple after not yet seeing action in Minnesota this season. Ward was with the Vikings in 2024 but went without a team this offseason. He joined the Vikings’ practice squad just before the season. Joining Mario Edwards and Denico Autry as Reggie McKenzie Raiders D-line draftees to play more than 10 seasons, the 2016 second-round pick has 49 career starts and 24 career sacks.
Like Golston, Ward gives the Giants an inside-outside option; though, Ward has settled into more of an EDGE role as his career has progressed. Ward, 32, also matched his career high with five sacks last season and notched a career-best mark in QB hits (22) under Wilson with the Titans. Ward tallied five sacks as a Giant in 2023. With Carter and Reese present, though, Ward joins a deeper Giants pass-rushing corps this time around.
