Giants' Rooting Guide for 2021 NFL Draft Implications of Week 9
The New York Giants enter their Week 9 clash with the Las Vegas Raiders as the team projected to pick sixth in the 2022 NFL draft, per Tankathon.com.
Joe Judge's team was joined at 2-6 by the New York Jets on Thursday night. The Jets are one spot ahead of the Giants going into the weekend. The Giants have not had their bye week yet.
If the Giants lose on Sunday, they have an opportunity to move up in the draft order because the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins square off at Hard Rock Stadium.
Two of the teams around the Giants in the projected draft order have Week 9 byes, so it is very easy for Giants fans to keep up with the games that will affect their status by the end of Sunday night.
New York will also have eyes on the Chicago Bears' Monday night clash with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Giants own Chicago's first-round pick from the trade that brought the Bears into position to select Justin Fields.
Chicago's first-round pick is currently locked into the No. 10 spot, but that could get better if the Steelers beat the Bears to conclude Week 9.
Steelers over Bears
Let's start with the simplest situation of them all.
The Giants want the Bears to keep losing so that they have an opportunity to use a pair of top 10 picks in April.
Chicago sits in the middle of six-team cluster with three victories. Three teams in that group will give up their first-round picks. Seattle's selection goes to the New York Jets and Miami gets San Francisco's pick.
Justin Fields displayed some promise in Chicago's Week 8 loss to the 49ers, but the Bears still lost by double figures.
Chicago's once-feared defense allowed 95 points in the last three weeks. The Bears are on a three-game losing streak with defeats to Green Bay, Tampa Bay and San Francisco.
The Bears' gauntlet of a schedule continues at Heinz Field on Monday against a tough Pittsburgh defense.
After Chicago's Week 10 bye, it has to host Baltimore and then turnaround on a quick week to play Detroit on Thanksgiving Day.
If Chicago loses to Pittsburgh, its pick will be firmly in the top 10 going into Week 10, which is exactly what Giants fans want.
Dolphins over Texans
The Giants' draft stock is not affected by the Houston-Miami result, but the status of one of their divisional rivals will be.
Philadelphia owns Miami's first-round pick from the shuffling that the Eagles, Dolphins and 49ers did during the days leading up to the 2021 NFL draft.
The last thing the Giants want to see is a divisional rival ahead of them in the draft order, especially if it happens twice with Philadelphia.
As of Friday, the Eagles are slated to pick second (with Miami's selection) and eighth. The Eagles also hold Indianapolis' first-round selection, but that dropped out of the top 10 on Thursday through the Colts' win over the Jets.
The Dolphins moved the ball well behind Tua Tagovailoa in the last few weeks, but they are struggling a bit to score. Tagovailoa has three straight 200-yard games, but the Dolphins were outscored in each of those contests.
A win is not guaranteed for the Dolphins since Tyrod Taylor is back at quarterback for the Texans. Houston looked competent with Taylor at quarterback before he went down with an injury.
A Houston helps the Giants as well since it moves one team closer to them in the standings, but for selfish reasons, they should root for the Dolphins to keep the Eagles away from a top-three pick.
Eagles over Chargers
Keeping with the divisional theme, the Giants could use an Eagles win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
The Eagles' own first-round pick sits at No. 8 going into Sunday. An Eagles win combined with a Giants loss would put two games of separation between the two sides in the standings.
That would help the Giants and their hunt to land the best possible talents and for the other high-level first-round picks to go land outside of the NFC East.
Philadelphia gained a ton of confidence by beating the Detroit Lions, who are the favorite to land the No. 1 overall pick.
The Chargers come into Philadelphia with a point to prove after they lost at home to New England out of their bye last week.
Los Angeles is on a two-game losing streak and it conceded 61 points in those games against Baltimore and New England.
The Giants would greatly appreciate another high concession from the Chargers defense, so that two of the Eagles' three first-round picks begin to drift away from them in the projected order.