Dec. 23, 2025, 9:30 a.m. ET
The New York Giants are 2-13 after 16 weeks of this up-and-down NFL season, where no team has stepped forward as a clear frontrunner for the Super Bowl.
The Giants, actually, have the worst record in the NFL at the moment and will likely end up with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, especially if they lose this Sunday to the Las Vegas Raiders (2-13) on the road.
Which leads us to ask: Will the Giants “tank” the rest of the way to secure that pick?
Paul Schwartz of The New York Post tells us they may not need to. They are on a nine-game losing streak and show no signs of breaking out of it.
We are going to hear all week that it is better for the Giants to lose in Las Vegas than it would be to finally end their losing streak, as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft is at stake in this clash of non-titans (both sitting at 2-13).
No, the Giants will not be “tanking” this weekend but, in reality, how would anyone know the difference if they really and truly were?
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True. The Giants have pulled out all the stops — firing coaches, shaking up their roster, and keeping their chin up — but nothing has worked. They seem to find new ways to lose every week now.
They are going to say all the right things and then look largely competitive at times, just enough to tease the fans that a complete blowup of this organization isn’t needed.
“They play relatively hard enough and never win anyway, so how much different would it look if they, you know, did not exactly give it their all against the Raiders?” writes Schwartz. “It almost seems as if they do everything they can to make it look good as they find a way to walk off the field as losers. It would be wild if the Giants did not put the pedal to the metal in this game and won anyway. Do not put anything past this group.”
Veteran cornerback Paulson Adebo, who is in his first year with the team, told reporters on Monday that “tanking” is not on the Giants’ minds at all. They want to win.
“Yeah, I just approach every game the same way, whether it’s first game of the season, last game of the season, so that’s nothing that we really think about,” he said.
To be clear, “tanking” is difficult to do in the NFL. On the field, the game cannot be played at less than 100 percent. Off the field, teams can do several things, such as sit players out late in the year and put backups and rookies in the lineup to show off their talents.
