How have the Giants found themselves here? A year after being in contention for the No. 1 pick with two games left, they’re back as a bottom feeder wrestling to be rewarded for failure.
Sunday’s game at the Raiders serves as a grim comedy where the high stakes mean the loser is one step closer to claiming the No. 1 pick.
That’s the level to which the Giants have fallen. They and the Raiders are both 2-13, the NFL’s worst record, and have matching nine-game losing streaks. This tussle in Las Vegas is a slop fest to see who gets rewarded not by winning but losing.
It’s another terrible situation for the Giants, who were 3-14 last season and own the NFL’s worst record since the start of the 2023 season. Fans might root for a loss, but the players would rather taste victory for the first time since Oct. 9.
“We work really hard during the week to go out there and try to put our best performance out there,” receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said. “[So we’re] definitely not going to think about going out there and trying to lose or anything like that.”
Here re the basics for the game. Whoever loses Sunday remains in the lead for the No. 1 pick with one game remaining. ESPN’s Football Power Index has the Giants with a 36.9% chance to earn the No. 1 pick and the Raiders are a 36.4% chance.
Per NFL.com, the Giants currently hold the No. 1 pick because they have a lower strength of schedule (.564) based on opponent win percentage. The Raiders are at No. 2 (.580).
The winner leaves Allegiant Stadium happy and with slimmer chances of getting the No. 1 pick. They’d have to lose their season finale — the Giants host Dallas, the Raiders host Kansas City — and root for Sunday’s loser to win their finale.
But that’s just part of it.
The Jets, Titans, Browns and Cardinals all are 3-12. Should the Giants and Raiders each win one more game and either of those four teams lose out? They fall back into the No. 1 pick race.
Per NFL.com, the Browns (.496) and Jets (.509) have an easier strength of schedule than the Giants or Raiders, so if there’s a tie, they’d leapfrog them in draft order.
The Giants, however, don’t just have the No. 1 pick at play if they lose. There’s more franchise history at play and none of it is good.
A loss would be the Giants’ 10th in a row, tying the franchise record they set last season. It’d be their ninth road loss of the season, a first in Giants history.
It’d also be the Giants’ 14th loss, tying a franchise record for the most losses in a Giants season set — you guessed it — last season. They’d also would become the first Giants team since 1976 to go winless on the road in a season.
It’s not what this franchise should shoot for in Week 17. But the Giants made this bed with poor decisions that have them stumbling downhill.
Losing 27 games over the last two seasons (with two more to play) is an indictment of both ownership and general manager Joe Schoen’s roster management. It’s a stench on the players who’ve struggled to make enough winning plays.
For them, finding a win at the end of the season is more important than thinking about draft positioning.
“We don’t care what the outside has to say about drafting,” running back Tyrone Tracy said last week. “We don’t care about what they have to say about players in college that we should get or we could get. We worry about the coaches that we have right now, the players that we have right now and the opportunities that we get to have when we go out there on the field.”
It’d be better if the Giants entered Week 17 fighting for playoff seeding. Yet here they are again playing to get closer to the No. 1 pick. It’s a fate they’ve created by not doing enough to fix the mess they made a year ago.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.