Where NY Giants Stand in Race for No. 1 Overall Draft Pick

Who says that the New York Giants don’t have anything more to play for this season?

At stake for the Giants is the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft, a battle that could very well be decided in Week 17 when the 2-13 Giants visit the 2-13 Las Vegas Raiders in a battle that in all likelihood will determine who goes on the clock as soon as the miserable 2025 season comes to an end in two weeks.

According to The Athletic’s projections, the Giants hold a 33% chance of landing the No. 1 pick while the Raiders hold a 34% chance. Clearly, a loss by the Giants to the Raiders next week will position the Giants to land that first overall pick, with a loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the regular-season finale locking up the draft slot.

Should the Giants lose to the Raiders but beat Dallas, their chance of getting the first overall pick drops to 5%, per the simulator.

And if the Giants beat the Raiders and lose to Dallas, their odds of getting the No. 1 overall pick drop to less than 1%.

It’s a sad state of affairs that instead of talking playoffs, the Giants, who will have a new head coach in 2026, are looking at the top spot in the 2026 draft.

The silver lining is that if they truly believe in Jaxson Dart as their franchise quarterback of the future, the Giants can auction off the first overall pick to the highest bidder among teams looking for a franchise quarterback.

That would enable the Giants to build draft capital not just for 2026 but also for 2027.

In such a scenario, the Giants might look into making a deal with the quarterback-needy Jets, who have two first-round picks thanks to their trade of cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts (the picks currently being No. 4 overall, which is their own, and No. 18, which belonged to the Colts).

The Giants, back in the 2004 Eli Manning trade with the then San Diego Chargers, sent their first-round pick (which they had used on quarterback Phillip Rivers), their third-round pick, and their first and fifth-round picks in 2005 to acquire Manning, who was the first player picked in that 2004 draft.

Such a trade, which clearly worked out well for the Giants, could serve as a basis for what the Giants could get in a trade with the Jets should the two teams remain in their current spots in the draft order.

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