NFL Draft 2026: How far is too far for the NY Giants to trade down?

A trade is announced at the NFL Draft | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images We’ve been talking about the possibility of the New York Giants trading down in the 2026 NFL Draft for months now. For a brief moment, it looked like the Giants would have control of the top of the draft and the potential to get a king’s ransom in a trade down. The Giants owned the first pick in the draft, which would have given them the ability to auction off the rights to draft Fernando Mendoza.

Then the Giants won their last two games against the Las Vegas Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, and slipped all the way down to fifth overall. That seemingly ended dreams of trading down for a franchise-changing haul. That said, 2025 gives us a glimmer of hope in the form of Travis Hunter.

Last year it seemed like a given that the Cleveland Browns would take the dynamic two-way player. At least right up until they traded with the Jacksonville Jaguars. One of the facts of this draft class is that the talent level is very flat beyond the first few picks.

While that has led many to label this a weak class, it also means that teams will be getting good –if not great — players into the third day. That, in turn, could entice teams looking for “difference makers” to move up for a specific player. Such a move might not net as much as the first pick with a starting caliber quarterback sitting there, but it could still be worth the Giants’ while.