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The Las Vegas Raiders host the New York Giants Sunday at 4:25 PM ET. The loser of this game will have the No. 1 pick in the poll for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Giants vs. The Raiders will air on CBS and the streams will continue live DIRECTV (Free Trial).
What: NFL Regular Season Week 17
WHO: New York Giants vs. Las Vegas Raiders
When: Sunday, December 28, 2025
Where: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
Time: 4:25 p.m. ET
TV: CBS
Live Streams: DIRECTV (Free Trial), fuboTV (free trial)
Here’s a recent NFL story via the Associated Press:
Chicago, New England and Jacksonville were all battling for draft position a year ago at this time, with those three teams finishing seasons that left them at the bottom of the NFL standings.
A disappointing 2024 season led to coaching changes that paid off immediately, with the Bears, Patriots and Jaguars all clinching playoff spots this week in the first year of the new regimes.
The work of Ben Johnson in Chicago, Mike Vrabel in New England and Liam Cohen in Jacksonville is impressive, but far from unprecedented. According to Sportradar, it was the 20th straight season in which at least one team made the playoffs with a coach in his first year on the job.
In that span, there have been an average of just over two first-year coaches who have led their teams to the postseason each year, with three tied for second this season.
There have been five first-year coaches in the NFL to make the playoffs in 2022 when Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell, Miami’s Mike McDaniel, New York Giants’ Brian Daboll, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Jacksonville’s Doug Pederson accomplished the feat.
Johnson, Vrabel and Coen will try to join some more elite company: Eight coaches have reached the Super Bowl in their first full season with a team. Four of those coaches have won it all, with Denver last doing it in the 2015 season under Gary Kubiak. The others were Jon Gruden in 2002 with Tampa Bay, George Seifert in 1989 with San Francisco and Don McCafferty in 1970 with the Baltimore Colts.
Gruden and Kubiak have coached other teams, meaning Johnson and Coen will try to join McCafferty and Seifert as the only coaches to win a Super Bowl in their first year as an NFL head coach.
While Chicago, New England and Jacksonville are experiencing remarkable turnarounds, the two No. 1 seeds from last year have slumped and could both miss the playoffs.
Kansas City has already been eliminated, and Detroit needs to win two games and hope Green Bay loses twice to get in.
The Lions and Chiefs won 15 games last season. Only two of the previous seven teams to win at least that many games have missed the playoffs the following season, with Carolina doing it in 2016 after going 15-1 and New England in 2008 after a 16-0 regular season when Tom Brady injured his knee in the opener.
New rules for overtime
The NFL’s new overtime rules provided the first last week, with Seattle becoming the first team to win a power play with a two-point conversion.
This is the first regular season in which the team that scores a touchdown on the opening possession of OT does not end the game, as the NFL expanded a rule first implemented in 2022 for the playoffs that guaranteed both teams an opportunity to gain at least one possession.
The change proved important for the Seahawks, who responded to a touchdown by the Los Angeles Rams to open overtime with one of their own. That prompted coach Mike Macdonald to go for the 2 and win rather than extend the game in sudden death, and Seattle converted to win 38-37.
It was the third time this season that a team has gone 2 and won after both teams scored touchdowns in overtime, with the Raiders falling short in Week 9 against Jacksonville and Washington falling short in Week 13 against Denver.
There have been 14 OT games this season, with only one lasting more than two runs. Dallas and the New York Giants combined for five possessions in Week 2 before the Cowboys won 40-37 on a field goal.
Four were decided when the team that started with the ball scored first and the second team could not match, and four more when the team that got the ball first failed to score and then allowed the winning score on the next drive.
There was also one tie in Week 4 when Dallas kicked a field goal on its opening possession and Green Bay used the rest of the 10-minute period to go on a drive that ended with a game-tying field goal.
Tank bowl
A “showdown” between the NFL’s only two-win teams when Las Vegas hosts the New York Giants on Sunday will be a rarity — and an important game in terms of draft order.
According to Sportradar, this will be just the fourth time since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 that the two teams with sole possession of the league’s two worst records will meet in a game in the final two weeks.
The loser of Sunday’s game in Las Vegas will “win” the right to pick the first other loss in Week 18, with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback prospect Fernando Mendoza, or the option to trade for a draft pick.
The previous three end-of-season MVP showdowns didn’t produce much of a prize for the team that finished first.
In 1981, New England lost the season finale to Baltimore and ended up with defensive lineman Kenneth Sims, who had 17 sacks in eight seasons and never made the Pro Bowl.
In 1980, the winless Saints beat the Jets with three wins in Week 15 after already securing the top pick in the draft. New Orleans selected running back George Rogers, who had a solid career but wasn’t nearly as good as the three Hall of Fame quarterbacks who went in the top eight of the draft: Lawrence Taylor, Kenny Easley and Ronnie Lott.
The first time it happened was in 1971, when Buffalo lost to Houston in Week 15 to clinch the top seed. The Bills took defensive lineman Walt Patulski, who lasted just five seasons.
Taysom with the triple threat
New Orleans wide receiver Taysom Hill reached the exclusive mark when he caught a 7-yard pass from Tyler Shough in the fourth quarter against the Jets on Sunday, giving him 1,002 receiving yards for his career.
Hill has already surpassed the 1,000-yard mark as both a passer and a runner, becoming the first player in the Super Bowl era with 1,000 yards in each. Hill capped his day by throwing a 38-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave and now has 2,551 rushing yards and 2,426 passing yards toward his receiving mark.
Three players hit the triple-1,000 club in the pre-Super Bowl era, with Bob Hoernschemeyer, Charley Trippi and George Taliaferro doing it in a career that ended in 1955.
But since the Super Bowl era began in 1966, no one has come close, with no other player recording at least 660 yards in each category. The closest of the previous players was Kordell Stewart, who easily topped the passing and rushing marks, but finished with 658 yards receiving.
Terrelle Pryor had at least 1,500 yards passing and receiving, but finished with only 646 as a running back.
Can I bet on the game?
Yes, you can bet on the game from your phone in New York State, and we’ve rounded up some of the best introductory offers to help you navigate your first bets from BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365 and others.
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