The New York Giants held the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft entering Week 17 of the season. After two straight meaningless wins to close the year, the Giants have now surrendered the top pick to the Las Vegas Raiders, and they won’t be drafting at No. 2, either. New York’s final draft position is No. 5 overall after the Week 18 dust settled.
The Giants screwed their NFL Draft position with 2 meaningless wins to end year
The Giants are unbeatable when they should be losing for draft position.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Giants ended the season with a win over the Dallas Cowboys, 34-17, on Sunday in Week 18. The victory comes on the heels of the G-Men beating the Raiders in a tank-off last week. The Giants will likely have a new head coach come next season after firing Brian Daboll midseason and installing Mike Kafka as the interim, but that coach won’t have the luxury of the top pick coming in.
The No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft is likely to be Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza. The Giants don’t need a quarterback after rookie Jaxson Dart performed pretty well in his first season on the job, but holding the first pick is still a powerful position for a rebuilding team. Look no further than the Chicago Bears, who parlayed the first pick in the 2024 draft into a trade package with the Carolina Panthers that landed them Caleb Williams, Darnell Wright, and Luther Burden III, among others.
Our most recent mock draft had the Giants taking Ohio State defender Arvell Reese, and that would be a nice talent addition for the Giants if it happens. It would also be a lot better if New York was trading down to get him and acquiring more future assets in the process.
It’s not all bad for the Giants. Young stud wide receiver Malik Nabors will be back next year, Dart can solidify himself as the team’s QB of the future with another good season, and players like young pass rusher Abdul Carter can take another big step. That didn’t stop people from getting off jokes on social media:
Sorry, Giants fans.
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