With John Harbaugh as head coach, the Ravens made just one top-10 pick in 18 seasons.

He doubled that within his first three months with the Giants.

The organization was in position to do so following the trade of three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals in exchange for the No. 10 selection. That left them with just four days to run through scenarios, starting with their original pick at No. 5.

Simulations, though, can take teams only so far on draft day.

"You never know how it's going to go in the draft," Harbaugh said in a new “Giants Life” episode, which goes behind the scenes of everything from the draft room to the plane ride with the newest Giants. "You never know who's going to get picked. There's a lot of speculation. There are mock drafts. There are just guesses. You never know until your pick comes up who's actually going to be there."

In no world did the Giants imagine they could land linebacker Arvell Reese and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, two of their top five players on the entire draft board.

First, the dominos had to fall just right for Reese, the All-American out of Ohio State.

The draft started with little suspense. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza went to the Raiders first overall. That put the Jets on the clock at No. 2.

"It was very unpredictable how the top 10 was going to go," general manager Joe Schoen recalled later. "Up until when the Jets were on the clock, nobody really knew who they were going to take. And once that shoe dropped, then we had an idea depending on who the Jets took how things would fall."

The Jets kept it close to the vest until picking Texas Tech edge defender David Bailey.

"This has been a quiet draft," Harbaugh said at the beginning of the night. "There's nobody – no information. Quietest draft ever."

The Cardinals were now on the clock at No. 3.

"Let's see what these guys do, whether they take [Jeremiyah] Love or not," Harbaugh said. "They'll probably take Love, the running back. If they don't, then our top two guys on the board are available, possibly available."

Arizona picked the Notre Dame star, setting up one more unknown with the Titans until the Giants could lock in their guy.

"Maybe these guys will surprise us," Harbaugh said.

Tennessee chose wide receiver Carnell Tate, who will now play for head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, the Giants' former coach.

That allowed the Giants to take another Buckeye, their Buckeye.

Harbaugh let out a "yeah!" and followed with another, this time louder.

"Hey, we didn't mock that one," Schoen said to Harbaugh.

Harbaugh responded: "We only did a million of them, but we didn't get that one."

Schoen: "That was a pipe dream."

But there was no time to celebrate getting their guy. They had to get the next one.

"After we picked at five, we were ecstatic to get Arvell, we're off to a good start, and now we go back to our board," Schoen said.

"We had to get right back to work," Harbaugh recalled. "Try to figure out the math a little bit on who might be there and who might not be there. There were trade opportunities coming in that had to be sorted through. So, yeah, we were right back at it."

The calls kept coming.

"We had gone through all the scenarios where, hey, if we trade back later in Round 1, we knew these are the names that we're going to be looking at," Schoen said. "Do we like the names that are back there if we trade back or should we stay?"

They eventually came to the following conclusion: "just stay and don't be cute."

That's how they ended up with Mauigoa, another player ranked in their top five, at No. 10 overall.

"We got him!" Harbaugh exclaimed. "We got him!"

Offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren was even more ecstatic as Mauigoa made the rounds on the phone.

"You know you are who I wanted from Day 1, man," he said. "I can't wait to get you here on our team. You are going to make this team better and bring that physicality and that leadership you talked about. I can't wait to get you here. … Come right now. Let's go."

The jet was fueled up and waiting for them in Pittsburgh, the site of the 2026 draft, the next morning.

"I'm just excited," Reese said at the end of the night. "I'm ready to get back to that [hotel] room and I've really got to process all this. I haven't really had time to process all this for real. Right now, I'm doing all the media, but man, I'm just excited. This is crazy to me that I'm right here in this position. It's crazy."

"So surreal," Mauigoa said. "It's kind of a sense of relief as well because of all the sacrifice that my parents made for me. Being on this stage is amazing. It's very satisfying."