{"id":80890,"date":"2025-12-25T14:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/80890\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T14:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:40:06","slug":"could-new-york-giants-clinch-no-1-pick-in-week-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/80890\/","title":{"rendered":"Could New York Giants clinch No. 1 pick in Week 17?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dec. 25, 2025, 9:01 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The New York Giants<\/a> (2-13) can reportedly lock up the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft as early as this weekend — with one week still to play — if a specific set of Week 17 results falls their way.<\/p>\n

Currently holding the top spot via strength of schedule (SOS) tiebreaker over the fellow 2-13 Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, the Giants need a combination of their own loss, a favorable result elsewhere, and protection on the SOS tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

Here are the key Week 17 scenarios that would allow the Giants to clinch the No. 1 pick outright after Sunday, as outlined by Doug Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Giants lose to Raiders in the Tank Bowl<\/p>\n

The direct head-to-head matchup is pivotal. A loss drops the Giants to 2-14 and sends the Raiders to 3-13, immediately eliminating the Raiders as a same-record threat for the remainder of the season. A Giants win would push them to 3-13 and drop the Raiders to 2-14, keeping the SOS battle alive into Week 18 but flipping the roles in the tank race.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Browns<\/a> defeat Steelers<\/p>\n

The 3-12 Browns need to improve to 4-12. This reduces the risk of Cleveland falling back into the mix at a lower win total and helps stabilize potential multi-team tie scenarios at the bottom of the standings.<\/p>\n

Giants secure strength-of-schedule tiebreaker<\/p>\n

To guarantee the SOS edge over any remaining competitors (primarily in case other 2- or 3-win teams lose), one of the following must happen:<\/p>\n

Path A: Jets beat Patriots<\/p>\n

A Jets win provides a clean, high-impact boost to the Giants’ SOS position.<\/p>\n

Path B: Accumulate at least 7 “SOS points” from other Week 17 results<\/p>\n

Certain opponent wins move the differential in the Giants’ favor. The point values (based on remaining schedule impacts) typically include higher-value games such as:<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bills win (4 points)Baltimore Ravens win (2 points)Select other games worth 1 point each: Dallas (win), Denver (win), Houston (win), Jacksonville (win), Miami (win), Carolina (win), Cincinnati (win), Atlanta (win)<\/p>\n

The exact combination needed adds up to at least seven points to lock the tiebreaker regardless of Week 18. Perhaps most importantly, the Browns must beat the Steelers.<\/p>\n

If all three conditions are met — Giants loss, Browns win, and SOS secured via either Path A or Path B — the Giants will officially clinch the No. 1 pick before Week 18 even kicks off. No other team would be able to catch them in record or tiebreakers.<\/p>\n

The simplest long-term path remains losing out (finishing 2-15), which would almost certainly deliver the top pick alone, but this Week 17 combination offers a chance to wrap it up early.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 25, 2025, 9:01 a.m. ET The New York Giants (2-13) can reportedly lock up the No. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,1941,1942,27744,948,3719,4078,950,930,932,947,1328,6568,3697,949,682],"class_list":["post-80890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-accessfree","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sstssportsnflgiants","tag-sstsngiants","tag-tag2026-nfl-draft","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcleveland-browns","tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnew-york-giants","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}