Could the New York Giants land the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft with four week left in the regular season?
With the 2025 NFL regular season slowly dying down, the New York Giants will now begin to shift their focus ahead to the offseason.
Despite being on bye in Week 14, the Giants were able to slide into the No. 1 slot for the 2026 NFL Draft. This comes after the Tennessee Titans took down the Cleveland Browns on the road, which forced New York into a three-way tie for the last-place spot.
Since general manager Joe Schoen took rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, the Giants would be in a perfect spot to trade out of the spot and recoup draft capital for the future. However, New York has four more games left in the 2025 regular season, which means that there’s a chance for the team to win multiple games.
Looking at the rest of their schedule, the Giants' Week 15 matchup against the Washington Commanders will be a huge deciding factor for the franchise’s draft position.
The fellow NFC East members are 3-10 this year and are coming off a brutal loss to the Minnesota Vikings, 31-0. Week 15, along with the team’s Week 17 matchup against the 2-11 Las Vegas Raiders, are the two games that could put New York out of the race for the No. 1 pick.
The Giants’ competition for the highly-touted pick will also depend on how the Titans, Browns, and New York Jets finish the 2025 regular season. Tennessee’s Week 17 matchup against the New Orleans Saints is one winnable game for a struggling organization, while the same can be said about the Jets, who play the Saints one week before the Titans.
If the Giants were to land the No. 1 spot, it would be due to the team losing at least three of the four remaining games this season. This gives Schoen and the front office some wiggle room with the other teams that are in the hunt for the top spot.
Ultimately, if New York manages to lose out this season, the Giants would hold the No. 1 pick, which could be a franchise-altering decision if the front office trades out of the pick.
There are plenty of teams that will be hungry for a quarterback, giving the organization a perfect chance to move down i the upcoming draft.