Tom Rock: Arvell Reese, Tremaine Edmunds form a true Giant tandem at linebacker
Tremaine Edmunds, left, and Arvell Reese. Credit: AP / Kamil Krzaczynski; Ed Murray
Tremaine Edmunds and Arvell Reese are only starting to get to know each other as teammates and fellow linebackers for the Giants, but they’re already seeing things eye-to-eye.
Literally.
In a league in which the average size of an inside linebacker is a little over 6 feet tall, the Giants are leaning into their name and putting a pair of players listed at 6-4 — but probably a little taller — side by side in the center of their defense.
It’s a new experience for Edmunds, who said he spent much of his previous eight years in the league with the Bills and Bears as the tallest player in his position group.
“I said to him, ‘There are not a lot of times that you find someone that you are looking eye-level with, at least for me, because I have always kind of been an outlier as far as one of the taller guys,’ ” Edmonds said of Reese this past week at the United Way of New York City’s Gridiron Gala. “But the league is changing. A lot of teams are going out and getting taller with some bigger guys. That’s life in the NFL. It’s always evolving.”
Now the Giants are evolving too. Or at least growing.
Bobby Okereke, the Giants’ starter at the position the past three seasons, was listed at 6-2. That’s certainly not puny, but Edmunds and Reese could make him look that way.
According to Stathead Football, the average size of an NFL linebacker in 2025 was 6 feet, 2.12 inches, but that included outside linebackers as well; they tend to skew taller. Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, for example, are 6-5 and Abdul Carter is 6-4.
It’s rare to find the kind of height the Giants now have with their off-the-ball skyscrapers because of the variety of skills and requirements called for by the position. Those players have to be able to plug holes at the line of scrimmage and drop back into coverage. They need to be bulldozers and drag racers.
The prototype for a John Harbaugh-coached inside linebacker, Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, was only 6-1, but he retired in 2012. Giants Hall of Famer Harry Carson was 6-2. Antonio Pierce was 6-1.
Things have changed.
That’s not to say Harbaugh wouldn’t love to have Lewis or Carson or Pierce playing for these Giants if he could get them. And there are exceptions to the height-makes-might rule. Former Jets inside linebacker Quincy Williams was an All-Pro despite being listed at 5-11. But it does mean Harbaugh is intrigued by the newfound length he has to work with on this roster.
Harbaugh said of Reese at the Giants’ rookie minicamp: “He is 6-4-plus, 240-something pounds, yet he moves like a smaller guy. He moves his feet. He can flip his hips. Very natural-looking mover off the ball, which was something we saw on tape. We thought we saw it, but now we saw it on the practice field, so we feel better about it.’’
The position is getting taller, as Edmunds noted. The Lions’ Jack Campbell is the only inside or middle linebacker in the league listed at 6-5, and he was a first-team All-Pro last season. The three other All-Pro linebackers on the first and second teams were Jordyn Brooks (6 feet), Devin Lloyd (6-3) and Ernest Jones (6-2). The reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, Carson Schwesinger, is listed at 6-3.
This year’s crop of rookie linebackers at the NFL Combine showed that trend as well. Reese measured in at 6-4, Sonny Styles was 6-5 and Jake Golday was 6-4. None of those players was selected later than the second round.
Taurean York, listed at 5-11, was the shortest linebacker at the Combine. He went undrafted before signing with the Broncos.
Edmunds and Reese are only starting to figure out how to work together.
“It’s all new to all of us,” Edmunds said of the offseason program. “We’ve been moving around some, but it’s been very limited. A lot of the stuff is learning the system so when we start OTAs next week, everybody can play at a fast pace. But just overall, my initial thoughts, obviously he is a big guy who can move, is athletic, is fast, all the things that people saw him display in college.”
Edmunds said the two eventually will learn how best to play off each other to amplify their strengths and cover their weaknesses.
“That comes with repetition, that comes with building a bond, that comes with chemistry,” he said.
It comes with the silent communication of looking a teammate in the eye, something Edmunds and Reese are naturally paired up to be able to do.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
