Why did the New York Giants select Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood Friday night with the 37th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft? The answer might be because Ohio State defensive tackle Kayden McDonald was taken one pick earlier by the Tennessee Titans, but that isn’t all.
Cornerback, with an underwhelming duo of Deonte Banks and Greg Newsome competing for one of the two starting jobs, was also a significant need.
“Competing to start. That’s what he’s going to do,” head coach John Harbaugh said Friday night. “We got a got a cornerback room now. It’s amazing how one addition changes the math in a room. Cornerback room is good, but now it’s really good. He’s going to push everybody, and he’ll be — I know one thing, he’s planning on coming in here and trying to win a starting job.”
“I want a bunch of pit bulls.”
You have to give it to Harbaugh. He certainly does know how to give an interesting quote, even if it doesn’t tell you a whole lot.
“It’s [drafting Hood] an opportunity to get better. There’s guys in there with opportunities.,” Harbaugh said. “I’m looking at Tae (Banks). Tae, he hasn’t played that great, he’ll tell you that. But is he capable of playing a lot better? I think he is. That’s on us and on him to get him to play better. So imagine if he takes this step and what does that do for the room. Is Paulson capable of playing better than he did last year? I would say so. So let’s go. Let’s go play better. Let’s go play at a level we’re capable of playing at. You got Paulson Adebo, he’s a highly-decorated vet in this league, and after what I saw last week I thought he looked good. I thought Tae looked really good last week. So that’s the kind of thing I’m going on. I don’t really care what the perception was a year ago or two years ago. I’m looking at what I see you. I see a good room. But I want a great room. I want a dominant room. I want a bunch of pit bulls out there flying around making plays on the football, and Colton Hood gives us another guy in there to do that and compete and push everybody.
“So you put another guy in there, another pit bull in the room, let’s see what he does. He plays the ball, he plays hard. He comes from a great family. Coached his uncle in Philly, he was a corner for us, Rod Hood. So I know the type of family this young man comes from, and the type person he is. I know the kind of athlete he is. This is a corner with traits and ball skills. Traits and ball skills at corner. Plus he’s a high-character guy. So he’s going to light a fire in that room. You better be ready. You better be ready to compete.”
GM Joe Schoen wasn’t biting when a reporter tried to find out how interested the Giants were in McDonald had he fallen to 37.
“We had targeted Colton Hood as a guy, corner is a premium position, and a player we really like,” Schoen said. “So the fact that he was there, there’s some good players taken in front of us certainly, but really excited to get Colton where we were able to get him, and again add some really good depth and competition to the roster we currently have.
“High-character kid. He’s been at Auburn and Colorado, then Tennessee, and we spent some time with him at the combine, but a kid that’s tough, that shows up on tape, he’s not afraid to throw his body around and tackle, he’s physical, and truly loves ball.”
