Why the Giants drafted CB Colton Hood in Round 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft

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.