The New York Football Giants and Las Vegas Raiders will face off in what could be the worst football game of the 2025-26 NFL season on Sunday. The winner will in all likelihood miss out on snagging the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft.

Both teams, sitting at 2-13 entering Week 17, are seemingly well aware of what’s at stake and they’re not even remotely hiding their attempts at tanking.

New York’s injury report on Saturday featured five key starters on both sides of the ball that will sit out of the contest due to ailments that kept them out of practice all week. Las Vegas, similarly, will be without star defensive end Maxx Crosby who will need season-ending knee surgery, per the team.

Though it should be noted Crosby reportedly walked out of the Raiders’ facility on Friday because he “vehemently disagreed” with the team’s decision to shut him down for the year, according to FOX’s Jay Glazer.

Giants and Raiders are blatantly displaying desperate attempts to tank for No. 1 pick

The NFL maintains teams do not tank for better draft positioning but it’s essentially an open secret that bad teams just continue to play poorly once the playoffs are out of reach early.

“Every club is expected to make a good faith effort to win every game,” Commissioner Roger Goodell stated in 2022 regarding allegations of tanking surrounding the Miami Dolphins. “The integrity of the game, and public confidence in professional football, demand no less.”

But the common fan isn’t stupid either. It’s obvious both the Giants and Raiders want the No. 1 pick and are well aware that losing Sunday’s game would basically clinch it with just one week left in the season.

All five starters that will not play Sunday for New York were not on the injury report entering Week 16 and played significant snaps against the Minnesota Vikings. While they could’ve sustained such injuries during the game, it seems rather convenient they were serious enough to prevent them all from practicing this week.

The same goes for Las Vegas’ handling of the Crosby situation. He clearly believed he was good to go for the final two weeks of the season before taking care of whatever was up with his knee in the offseason. Team doctors ultimately have final call over a player’s health but that’s where any fan has to take things with a grain of salt when the context of the situation is this clear.

This isn’t even considering the fact that both teams already have players placed on injured reserve earlier in the year. New York lost star offensive weapons like Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo and Las Vegas is without tight end Brock Bowers.

Sunday’s game is just going to be poor quality football and that should be something the NFL wants to avoid. I’m not suggesting teams force stars to play when injured but it’s unclear how you regulate such approaches by teams unless a neutral, league-appointed physician is the one making final decisions on player health statuses.