Giants Said No To Tanking And Shook Up the 2026 NFL Draft
Back-to-back victories over the Raiders and Cowboys cost the Giants the top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and could see them slide all the way down to No. 6.
Tanking is all the rage in professional sports because losing games comes with the reward of a higher draft pick. But the New York Giants refused to tank. In fact, what's the opposite of tanking? Whatever that is called is what the Giants did over the final two weeks of the 2025 NFL regular season.
Entering Week 17, the Giants controlled the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. If they had lost to the Raiders, the Giants would have secured the pick regardless of what happened in Week 18 because of the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker. Instead, New York not only defeated Las Vegas but completely controlled the game from start to finish en route to a blowout victory.
READ: 2026 NFL Draft Order Set: Raiders Get Top Pick Followed By Jets, Cardinals, Titans, Giants
That moved the Raiders into the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the Giants only fell to the No. 2 spot. Obviously, the second pick in the draft is still incredibly valuable, especially to a team like the Giants who seemingly have their future franchise quarterback, Jaxson Dart, already on the roster. They could trade the pick to try and accumulate more draft capital or use the pick to bolster the roster with a high-level prospect.
The Giants spurned tanking with back-to-back wins, reshaping the 2026 NFL Draft order and risking a slide from No. 1 to outside the top five.
(Al Bello/Getty Images)
Instead, the Giants showed no interest in losing at home to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 18. Dallas took a 10-6 lead in the first quarter, which presented the perfect opportunity for New York to lie down and secure the second overall pick in the draft.
New York, however, scored 18 unanswered points in the second and third quarters to grab a 24-10 lead entering the fourth. The Cowboys scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to seven points, but the Giants responded with a field-goal drive. Interestingly, New York ran a very conservative play on third down inside the Cowboys' 15-yard line, showing that the team wanted to ensure it at least got three points out of the drive.
Those are the actions of a team trying to win a game, not a team trying to lose it. If either team were trying to tank, it was the Cowboys. They benched starting quarterback Dak Prescott for the second half, with the team trailing 16-10.
Credit to the Giants for Not Tanking, but It Could Be Costly
Ultimately, the Giants cruised to a 34-17 victory over the Cowboys to extend their winning streak to two games after losing nine games in a row. They went from a two-win team in prime position for the top pick in the 2026 NFL draft to possibly selecting outside the top five.
However, New York caught a break with the Cleveland Browns connecting on a game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired against the Bengals, shortly after the Giants beat the Cowboys. The win moved Cleveland to 5-12, one game ahead of the Giants. Cleveland would have held the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker over the Giants had they lost, so the win saved the Giants from sliding down an additional spot.
The Tennessee Titans lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 18, so they moved ahead of the Giants in the draft order after finishing the season at 3-14.
The rest of the top 10 will be determined by the late-afternoon Sunday games in Week 18. The Giants' front office will be watching intently as several teams take the field, including the three-win Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets and four-win Washington Commanders.
If all three teams lose, they would all jump ahead of the Giants, which would give New York the No. 6 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Dropping from No. 1 to No. 6 isn't ideal, but at least Giants players and coaches showed pride in the final two games of the regular season. And pride is more valuable than the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Right?
… Right???
UPDATE: The Giants will select fifth-overall in the 2026 NFL Draft after the Jets and Cardinals lost and the Commanders won.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated the Giants could only fall to the No. 5 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The article has been corrected to note the Giants could have dropped as far as the No. 6 pick following the completion of the early-afternoon games on Sunday.