The Washington Commanders will head to East Rutherford this weekend to take on the New York Giants, as they begin a stretch of four consecutive NFC East rivalry games to close out the regular season.
Washington's final three contests, against the Philadelphia Eagles twice and the Dallas Cowboys at home, were supposed to be their most crucial stretch of the season. But instead, it's this Week 15 tilt that might have the most important long-term ramifications.
The Commanders are 3-10, and the Giants are 2-11. That means their draft positions hang in the balance. For once, a loss might actually be a positive thing.
The Commanders will win against the Giants, even if they lose
Washington will do one of two things on Sunday: win the game, or vastly improve their spot in the 2026 NFL Draft. A loss would bring both teams to 3-11, with a head-to-head split after the Commanders beat the Giants in Week 1. The tiebreaker would then be determined by strength of schedule, where Dan Quinn's squad currently has the edge.
That would move the Commanders ahead of the Giants, who currently sit in the No. 1 slot, in the pecking order. They would still be behind the two-win Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans — unless those teams somehow earn victories — but they could easily end the day sitting inside the top five.
Yes, it's a losing mentality to focus on draft boards in December instead of finding positives on the field to build from. And make no mistake, the Commanders should not want to drop this game. As if their season hasn't already been disappointing enough, they could potentially fall to last place in the NFC East, behind a team that fired its head coach.
Another defeat would be the Commanders' ninth in a row, giving them sole possession of the longest winless streak in NFL history by a team that qualified for a championship game the previous year. No, thank you.
This should be the game that the Commanders' two-month nightmare finally ends. But the message here is that if it's not, there's an easy cope. Just as in 2019, when the Washington played the Giants in Week 16 and lost to earn the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft instead of the No. 3 pick, there is a big-picture element involved.
Of course, even if the Commanders leapfrog the Giants on the draft board, it doesn't mean they'll necessarily select the better player. But we'll worry about that when the time comes.
For now, there are no bad outcomes on Sunday.