Revealing Football Outsiders' Giants Current Odds of Landing the No. 1 Overall Draft Pick
The NFL's 2020 season is barely through its first quarter, but that is enough of a sample size for Football Outsiders to put together some initial projections as to which teams have the best chance of landing the first overall pick in next year's draft.
The popular advanced analytics site has the 0-2 Giants with the seventh-best chance to finish with a record good enough to sit at the top of the draft order next year, giving the Giants a 5.8% chance to wind up with the first-overall pick and a 30% chance to get a top-five pick.
There is still a lot of football left to be played (assuming the COVID-19 virus doesn't change that), and things would have to go very far south for first-year head coach Joe Judge and the Giants for them to end up with that draft positioning.
But considering the schedule they have lined up, the Giants certainly have their work cut out for them. After facing the defending NFC champion 49ers this weekend, the team heads west to face the Rams and Aaron Donald next week.
They then kick off a critical six-game stretch leading up to their Week 11 bye in which five of their next six games will be against NFC East division opponents, primarily considered the key toward recording a winning season.
The last time the Giants had a winning record against their division foes was in 2016 when they went 4-2--and made the playoffs. Since then, the Giants have gone 4-14 against division opponents.
Beyond that stretch, there are only three games on the Giants' schedule against teams that finished with a worse record last season. Two of them are against the Washington Football Team and the other being on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium, a venue where the Giants are winless as a franchise.
Through two games, there is no question that the Giants are still a work in progress. They still need to decide who their long-term starting cornerback is opposite of James Bradberry. They will also have to figure out how to replace the production that Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard can generate.
Their offensive line rebuild isn't complete either. Cameron Fleming, who signed a one-year contract this year to initially be the swing tackle, is thought to be keeping the seat warm until third-round pick Matt Peart is ready to step into the starting lineup. And eventually, the Giants are thought to want to find a place for Shane Lemieux, their fifth-round pick this year.
Again, there is a lot of football left, so to begin speculating now is an exercise in futility. But certainly, over the next several weeks, it bears watching to see if the Giants finally start to jell and make the progress that head coach Joe Judge and the coaching staff are seeking.
