New York Giants' 2026 Draft Slot Set Following Week 18 Action

It's not what fans were hoping for, but the Giants are still pretty high in the 2026 draft order.

A general overall view of the 2025 NFL Draft logo on the Draft stage at Lambeau Field. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The dust has finally settled on the final weekend of the regular season. With it, the top of the first-round order in the 2026 NFL Draft is officially set for the bevy of teams not heading into postseason contention.

That includes the New York Giants, who went into their Week 18 regular-season finale against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday with their eyes fixed on ending their nine-game losing streak to their NFC East rivals, a successful mission that ended in a 34-17 victory but came at the cost of their position in the upcoming draft.

Entering the game, the Giants had a chance to lock down the No. 2 pick with a loss to the Cowboys, or potentially move back up into the No. 1 spot with a Las Vegas Raiders win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Much to the chagrin of some Giants fans, neither of those outcomes came to fruition, and after finishing 4-13 on the season with the rest of the slate's results in, the Giants will be picking fifth overall in April's draft in Pittsburgh.

The top 10 for April: pic.twitter.com/u5BmI9c2zF

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2026

The drop to No. 5 comes after losses by the Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, and New York Jets on Sunday, with all three three-win franchises jumping ahead of Big Blue, which appeared to be heading for that position just weeks earlier while riding a nine-game losing streak.

They ended that freefall with consecutive victories over the Raiders and Cowboys, marking the first pair of wins by the Giants since Weeks 11-14 of the 2023 season, when they won three straight games behind then-quarterback Tommy DeVito.

This also marks the fifth time in the organization's history that the Giants will be selecting fifth overall in the first round of the draft, the other four instances happening in 1946 (T George Connor), 1977 (DE Gary Jeter), 1996 (DE Cedric Jones), and 2022 (OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux).

Connor, the first Giants draftee to be selected at No. 5, became infamous for being selected at the outset of serving in World War II, then electing to return to school at Notre Dame and forego playing for the franchise before eventually settling with the Chicago Bears two years later.

Jeter was a five-year member of the Giants from 1977-82, where he was a part of the early years of the team's defensive era headlined by the Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, and his best two seasons came in 1981-82 when he recorded a combined 17 sacks that helped get the Giants back into the postseason in the former year.

Jones also held a five-year stint with the organization from 1996-2000, appearing in 73 total games and starting in all 32 over his last two seasons in New York.

Thibodeaux remains the active player on the Giants roster in the party of No. 5 picks but had a down year in 2025, appearing in just 10 games and recording a career-low 2.5 sacks.

In his entire tenure, Thibodeaux has been a mixed bag for the Giants' defense. He exploded as a pass rusher in 2023 with a career-high 11.5 sacks and four forced turnovers before dropping to 5.5 sacks in 2024 and half of that number this past season after the Giants elected to opt into his fifth-year option for the 2026 campaign, where he may have to show off to get a new long-term commitment.

With this latest pick, the prospect of the Giants' moving down the board and gaining extra draft capital from another desperate team is behind them, meaning it's likely that they now stay put and target one of the class's best available players to fill one of their notable roster needs, such as wide receiver or the defensive secondary.

Along with their No. 5 pick, the Giants will have the 15th-highest-ranked assortment of draft assets in terms of overall value, according to Tankathon. 

That is, of course, before any potential trades in later rounds, but it offers them a pretty viable set of picks to hopefully go out and find the right young talent to strengthen their ranks and compete next season.

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