The Giants have reached an awkward part of their season.
If the season ended now, the Giants (2-12) would finish with the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, and a segment of their fan base would actually prefer they lose their remaining three games in order to secure that position.
But don’t tell that to the players, who have absolutely zero interest in tanking.
“We’re never gonna go out and try to lose,” running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. said Tuesday. “We’re not gonna just throw a game away. We’re going out there to win, point blank, period.”
The Giants are tied with the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans for the NFL’s worst record, but because they’ve played the easiest schedule of the three, they own the tiebreaker for the No. 1 pick.
Although the Giants already have a young quarterback to build around in Jaxson Dart, the No. 1 pick could be incredibly valuable, considering they could trade it to a QB-needy team for a haul.
Teams like the Jets, Raiders or Cleveland Browns might be willing to trade multiple premium picks in order to move up and select, say, Heisman-winning Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Or the Giants could stick at No. 1 and take the best player on their board, with Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese or Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. among the candidates.
Again, the players aren’t interested.
“We don’t care what the outside has to say about draft picks,” Tracy said. “We don’t care about what they have to say about players in college that we should get or we could get. We worry about the coach that we have right now, the players that we have right now, and the opportunities that we get to have when we go on the field.”
The Giants, who have lost eight games in a row, are set to face the Minnesota Vikings, Raiders and Dallas Cowboys over the season’s final three weeks. That Dec. 28 matchup in Las Vegas could very well decide who picks No. 1.
That said, ending up with the first overall pick doesn’t guarantee the best outcome.
In 2019, the Giants defeated Washington in the second-to-last game of the season, which ultimately left Washington with the No. 2 pick and the Giants with No. 4.
Washington selected pass rusher Chase Young, who didn’t live up to his can’t-miss status, largely because of injuries.
The Giants, meanwhile, drafted left tackle Andrew Thomas, who is now one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL.
And last year, the Giants defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Week 17, dropping them out of position for the No. 1 pick.
The Giants ended up drafting pass rusher Abdul Carter with the No. 3 pick, and then traded back into the first round to take Dart. The Titans, who picked first last year, drafted quarterback Cam Ward.
“If you’re a true competitor, every time you step on the field, you’re trying to win the game,” Thomas said Tuesday. “I don’t think we have guys in our locker room that are focused on that type of thing. Obviously, we haven’t gotten a win [recently], but that’s what we’re trying to do.”
ESPN’s prediction model projects the Giants to end up with the No. 4 pick, behind the Raiders, Browns (3-11) and Titans.
That model gives the Giants a 16% chance at landing the No. 1 pick and a 75.9% chance at finishing with a top-five selection.
“Every game, we have competed. … We have been winning these games. Obviously, the ball just hasn’t been rolling our way toward the end of the game,” Tracy said.
“But when you look at the film, when you look at the stats, when you look at, really, everything, we are going out there and we’re hooping. We’re doing everything we can to win the game, and that’s not going to change.”
