The Giants finished their 2025 season Sunday by beating the Cowboys, 34-17.
So the Giants wound up with a 4-13 record, after going 3-14 in 2024 and 6-11 in 2023.
Entering Sunday, they were second in the 2026 NFL Draft order, one spot ahead of the Jets, who visit the Bills later Sunday afternoon.
The Giants were first heading into last week’s game at Las Vegas (which was second at that point), but then the Giants beat the Raiders. If the Giants had lost that game, they would’ve locked up the No. 1 pick.
Instead, the Raiders have now secured that position, because of the Giants’ win over the Cowboys.
Meanwhile, the Jets will clinch the No. 2 pick if they lose in Buffalo on Sunday.
The Giants ended a miserable season on a two-game winning streak that took them out of the mix for the top spot. They could have secured a haul of draft assets by trading that pick. So much for that.
Entering Week 18, it was Raiders at No. 1 and Giants at No. 2. The Raiders need a quarterback. The Giants do not. (So a lower-positioned, quarterback-needy team, like the Jets, was bummed to see the Giants win in Las Vegas, since that maybe crushed a trade-up move to No. 1.)
The Giants headed into Sunday’s finale still holding an outside shot at the No. 1 pick. But they needed to lose to the Cowboys and have the Raiders beat the Chiefs later Sunday afternoon.
The Giants also needed at least two of these four teams to win in Week 18, in order to gain the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker over the Raiders: Seattle, Atlanta, Cleveland and Chicago.
The Seahawks won Saturday, which helped the Giants as they prepared to host Dallas. In Sunday’s early window, with the Bears waiting to play later, the Browns won. So the Giants didn’t need additional help from Atlanta, though the Falcons did also win.
The Giants began Sunday facing the possibility of falling as low as No. 7, if everything went against them (including them beating the Cowboys). But with a loss to Dallas, they Giants knew they’d have a top-two pick.
Instead, the Giants beat the Cowboys, despite getting the help they needed from Seattle and Cleveland, with the Raiders coming up.
Here is a look at the latest draft order, coming out of Sunday’s 1 p.m. games:
1. Raiders — 2-14
2. Titans — 3-14
3. Jets — 3-13
4. Cardinals — 3-13
5. Giants — 4-13
6. Commanders — 4-12
7. Browns — 5-12
8. Saints — 6-11
9. Bengals — 6-11
10. Chiefs — 6-10
11. Dolphins — 7-9
12. Cowboys — 7-9-1
13. Rams (from Falcons — 8-9)
14. Buccaneers — 8-9
15. Jets (from Colts — 8-9)
16. Lions — 8-8
17. Ravens — 8-8
18. Vikings — 9-8
19. Panthers — 8-9
20. Cowboys (from Packers — 9-7-1)
21. Steelers — 9-7
22. Chargers — 11-5
23. Bills — 11-5
24. Rams — 11-5
25. Eagles — 11-5
26. 49ers — 12-5
27. Texans — 12-5
28. Browns (from Jaguars — 12-4)
29. Bears — 11-5
30. Patriots — 13-3
31. Broncos — 13-3
32. Seahawks — 14-3