{"id":827084,"date":"2026-03-22T12:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/827084\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T12:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:33:26","slug":"raiders-clinch-top-pick-in-2026-nfl-draft-with-giants-win-over-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/827084\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders clinch top pick in 2026 NFL Draft with Giants\u2019 win over Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Raiders owner Mark Davis, Image 2 shows Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger scored a touchdown against the Cowboys on Jan. 4, 2025<\/p>\n

The Raiders clinched the first-overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft before they even took the field on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As the Raiders closed out one of the worst seasons in franchise history, the team received some good news, thanks to the Giants defeating the Cowboys<\/a> on Sunday afternoon, 34-17, solidifying the Raiders\u2019 spot in the draft order.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas will now make the first pick in April\u2019s draft for the first time since 2007, when they took JaMarcus Russell out of LSU with the selection, and they\u2019ll be looking at possibly taking another quarterback, with Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza currently sitting as the presumptive No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n

\"Raiders<\/p>\n

Raiders principal owner Mark Davis. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Geno Smith is currently under contract with the Raiders through 2028, but had a league-worst 17 interceptions this season.<\/p>\n

The Raiders entered their season finale against the Chiefs at 2-14, which is tied for the most losses in a season in the organization\u2019s history \u2014 a feat set in 2016 \u2014 and they\u2019ve dropped 10 straight games.<\/p>\n

Pete Carroll\u2019s future in Sin City is unclear after the regular season ends.<\/p>\n

Even if the Raiders were to win on Sunday afternoon, it would do nothing to change their spot in the draft order with the Jets, Titans and Cardinals unable to move up ahead of them.<\/p>\n

\"Giants<\/p>\n

Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger scored a touchdown against the Cowboys on Jan. 4, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Giants did Las Vegas a favor by drubbing them 34-10 in Week 17, as Big Blue had entered that match holding the coveted No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n

However, the win over the Raiders and then Sunday\u2019s win over the Cowboys have the Giants now picking anywhere between No. 3 and No. 6, depending on how the rest of the games play out in Week 18.<\/p>\n

The Raiders do hold a number of picks in this year\u2019s draft with selections in rounds two through seven, along with additional draft picks they received in the deal that sent Jakobi Myers to Jacksonville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Raiders owner Mark Davis, Image 2 shows Giants tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[5047,8631,3619,7,1507,519,212,28075,1744,12080,6,15,525,1119,1799,5654],"class_list":{"0":"post-827084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-daniel-bellinger","9":"tag-draft-order","10":"tag-fernando-mendoza","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-geno-smith","13":"tag-giants","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jamarcus-russell","16":"tag-las-vegas","17":"tag-mark-davis","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nfl-draft","20":"tag-raiders","21":"tag-the-cowboys","22":"tag-the-giants","23":"tag-the-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116272852369161748","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}