Big Blue View
The NFL needs a draft lottery to determine the order of the first few picks, as the NBA has done. That would avoid the spectacle of last week, when everyone was trying to parse the Las Vegas Raiders’ motives in shutting down Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby for their game against the New York Giants. Fans would be free to root for their team to play well for a change, knowing that the position of their first-round pick would be at least partly a matter of chance rather than the result of tanking.
Absent that, all we have to look at is how the two teams approached the game itself. You could argue that Mike Kafka’s ultra-conservative game plan last week for Jaxson Dart was evidence of tanking. The larger question, though, when the two worst teams (by record) in the NFL meet in the penultimate game of the season, is:
How do you tell the difference between a team that’s tanking and a team that’s just that bad? I don’t know, but I do know that the Giants looked by far like the better team today. What did we learn from this game?
No, this isn’t about the Masters Tournament. It’s about the Giants winning late games in lost seasons to worsen their draft position. In 2019, they beat Washington in overtime in a meaningless next-to-last game to “lose” the “Chase Young Bowl.” Their consolation prize was Andrew Thomas.
In 2023, the legend of Tommy DeVito was born. After basically not being allowed to throw the ball as the emergency quarterback vs. the Jets, DeVito started and won three consecutive games, the last of them vs. New England when the Patriots’ kicker missed a short field goal that would have sent the game to overtime. Those three wins cost the Giants the No. 2 or 3 pick and thus a shot at Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. Still, they did select Malik Nabers, which was a good consolation prize.
In 2024, they suddenly found their offense against the Colts in the next-to-last game of the season, losing any chance to get Cam Ward or Travis Hunter. The jury is still out on both of them, but neither has had a good rookie season. Meanwhile, Abdul Carter, whom they did get, is starting to be the disruptive force we all imagined he’d be (that is, when he lines up behind the neutral zone), and the relatively inexpensive trade-up for Jaxson Dart seems like it might be a home run.
Now, with their win in Las Vegas when a loss would have guaranteed them the No. 1 pick in 2026 and a possible trade-down for draft assets, the Giants’ only path to No. 1 requires them to lose to Dallas next week (very likely) and have the Raiders beat Kansas City (unlikely). Even so, the Giants will draft no lower than No. 7 and should be able to get a very good prospect. Maybe things...
