4 Key Takeaways You Might Have Missed from Giants Assistant GM Brandon Brown

New York Giants assistant general manager Brandon Brown only gets to speak to the media twice a year, but when he does, it’s often an informative treat filled with thoughtful answers and a candidness that’s rare to find league-wide.

His session following the second day of the team’s rookie minicamp was no different, as it was chock-full of behind-the-scenes tidbits that lend themselves to how life under head coach John Harbaugh is going to play out moving forward.

With that, here are the top four takeaways from what Brown revealed–and why they matter.

Smaller is Better

One of the first things to jump out about the roster assembled at the rookie minicamp was its size: 49 players total–four less than a standard regular-season NFL roster. The roster included eight UDFAs from 2026, one from 2025, the seven draft picks, and a couple of eligible guys from last year’s practice squad.

“The biggest thing when we brought these guys in for the rookie minicamp was the instruction,” Brown said.

“You’re not getting a lot of competitive periods out here. It's who can take to the coaching, what's the attention to detail, and just focus on the core group of guys, because we're going to be integrating them with the varsity coming up very soon.”

Why does this matter? For one, the scouts obviously identified players with high football acumen, in addition to a modicum of talent.

Second, by keeping the roster smaller, it not only allowed for more personalized instruction–the goal being to hit the ground running–it also made better use of the coaches’ time.

Harbaugh’s Clear Vision Helped the Scouts Do Their Jobs  

Some coaches come into the draft willing to cast a wide net for the types of players they bring in, an approach that often leaves success to chance. Harbaugh, however, had a clear vision that he articulated to the scouting department, which in turn made their job easier.  

“The process has been phenomenal with Harbs. I say why it's phenomenal was just the clarity of the vision and the identity that he wants to build,” Brown said.

“You talk about building the bully, all of our players from different positions, they have that mentality. Pit bull mentality, as you will, where they may not all be in the trenches, but they bring something that's different.”

While the success of the class won’t be known for a few years yet, the fact that Harbaugh had them focus on the best players who fit the 'Giants' desired mold, while not necessarily adhering to what the league-wide pundits were saying, puts the Giants in a good position for success.  

“I think from the clarity of the vision that Harbs has painted, and us executing the vision and taking the big ocean of players and narrowing it down in that funnel to the guys who fit us. Not what plays for the league, but what it's going to be for us and lend to our identity,” Brown said.

The Subtle Addition Made to their Process

Thanks in part to NIL (name, image, and likeness), players tend to hop from program to program, making it difficult to scout them because no one member of staff gets to work with the prospect long enough.

Second-round pick Colton Hood is an example of that. Hood spent one year in each of three programs (Auburn, Colorado, and Tennessee).

To help get to know the prospects better, Brown revealed that the team hired additional scouting assistants with a particular specialty in mind.

“We've hired some scouting assistants who come from the college landscape, and they know how these guys work during the portal process,” he said. “

When they actually have to negotiate portal deals, how are they with money before they get to us? We kind of have a beat on who they are, their love of football, what drives them, and their motivators.

“And we're not waiting until they're the New York Giants. We know exactly how money will affect them. We know how they're going to show up every day.”

It’s also fair to wonder if the impact of NIL has diluted the draft classes, particularly in the later rounds, which is why deals such as what the Giants made to acquire receiver Malachi Fields in the third round make more sense than the pre-NIL days.

Brown agreed.

“With NIL, too, it really affects the quality of the draft. You are talking about our trade coming up and getting (wide receiver) Malachi (Fields), we know what traditionally is in the fourth or fifth round.

“It's a little bit different because some of those guys are going back to school and wanting to maximize their value for the next year, while also getting paid a good amount.

So we're just not adjusting our approach, but knowing that multiple touchpoints have been part of the success plan for us and understanding and knowing who the kid is, what drives them, and how we best support them once they're wearing Giants blue.”

They Use AI

AI (artificial intelligence) isn’t a perfect technology, but it is one that more and more industries are using to varying degrees, including the Giants.

“Whether you're using AI to synthesize information, because that's the big part that people don't talk about,” Brown said.

“If you are using AI to synthesize information of players that have certain traits, and then now you're trying to extrapolate what makes them similar, what makes them different, it's part of the process that you can streamline certain pieces.”

But fear not, Giants fans. The Giants, per Brown, still use the old-fashioned–and most reliable–methods of evaluating prospects, and that’s the human touch.

“We're always going to trust our eyes. Our eyes and our exposures are going to be paramount to any other supplemental tools. If there's something different, if there's something that's an outlier, we're going to use that.”

Bottom Line

The vibes are high around the Giants and what they’ve been able to build with Harbaugh in the saddle. But, as is always the case, championships are not won in the spring, as there is still on-field stuff to take place.

Still, if Giants fans want a reason to be optimistic, the best we can offer is that there has apparently never been a clearer plan for what they envision the football team to look like and how they plan to fill the holes.

They’re going to need a little bit of luck regarding injuries being kept to a minimum and for their young core foundation to keep developing, but it’s hard to argue that the Giants haven’t  had a philosophical change in how they build up a roster that is finally tantalizing.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.  

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow