Pause the NFL Draft talk. Here’s the ultimate reason the Giants will try to win the last two games

Dexter Lawrence is playing despite a hamstring issue that clearly is limiting his effectiveness. He is with the Giants for the long haul and has the contact to prove it.

Saquon Barkley was the only Giants running back with a rushing attempt in the 33-25 Christmas Day loss to the Eagles in Philadelphia. He was on the field for 89 percent of the snaps on offense, a hefty amount for a player at his position. He does not have a deal for the 2024 season.

If you are a fan who looked at the most recent loss and thought, “Good, the Giants didn’t embarrass themselves and they still lost — and that helps for the NFL Draft,’’ you need to have a talk with Lawrence and Barkley.

If you are a fan who takes a look at the last two games of this season — home games against the Rams and the Eagles in a Week 18 rematch — and believes the best course of action for the franchise is to battle hard and lose gracefully to maintain a top-five pick, a trip into the Giants’ practice facility is in order.

Once there, an introduction will be made in the offensive meeting room to Andrew Thomas, John Michael Schmitz and Wan’Dale Robinson. Then a meet-and-greet can be arranged in the defensive room with Bobby Okereke, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Deonte Banks. Then you can pontificate to them on your “it’s better to lose’’ theories.

This is not about having Pollyanna views of the NFL landscape. It is a business more than it is a sport.

Draft positioning is important. Of course it is. If there is one game remaining in a season and there is a Peyton Manning/Andrew Luck-level prospect waiting to be picked No. 1, sure, a quarterback-needy team should think about not going pedal-to-the-metal to win a season finale in an already lost season.

That does not mean instructing players not to try. It does mean utilizing personnel in a way that allows younger players to go out there and play their hardest, cognizant that there are other players available, sitting out, who would give the team a better chance to win.

The Giants are 5-10. The best they can get to is 7-10; the worst it could look is 5-12. Does it matter much which it is?

It does to Brian Daboll, because the record of a team is also the record of the head coach. It says it right there on the résumé. Daboll was 9-7-1 in 2023 and was named the NFL Coach of the Year. He even won one playoff game. You think Daboll does not care if his record this season is 5-12, 6-11 or 7-10? This is all going down on his watch.

Anyone who saw him lathered up, perspiration pouring off his bald head, still in game mode as he made his way to the podium for his postgame press conference after the loss in Philly would not have dared to inform him, “Well, on the bright side, this helps your draft pick.’’

The Giants currently sit at No. 5 overall in the first round of the 2024 draft. They share a record of 5-10 with the Chargers and the Titans, who are in the No. 6 and No. 7 spots, respectively. The Giants could rise as high as No. 3 by leapfrogging the Commanders and Patriots, owners of 4-11 records.

If quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Drake Maye, after possible trades and wrangling, are the top two picks, the team sitting at No. 3 would be able to select the best non-quarterback in the draft.

That could be wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State), offensive tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu (Penn State) or tight end Brock Bowers (Georgia). The Giants would welcome all three, with the most open of arms.

It is always tempting to speculate and contemplate all of this, but it is not the time for it. Not yet.

This is the time for the players currently on the roster to give it what they have to give.

Lawrence hardly practiced this past week because he needs time off his feet to deal with the lingering hamstring strain that caused him to miss the 10-7 victory over the Patriots, the first game of his career he missed because of an injury. Lawrence has not been his dominant self since he got hurt. He played 38 of the 75 snaps on defense against the Eagles and contributed four tackles, including two for loss. He admitted afterward he is doing what he can, given his physical limitations.

He also waved off the notion he would seek a reduced role in the final two weeks.

You think Lawrence cares about the Giants picking No. 5 or No. 6 in the upcoming draft? Barkley?

This is the season. The other stuff, the roster building, takes place in the offseason.

Lawrence could benefit from time off. Barkley has put in a full workload all season. Reducing snaps for them in these final two games is not a crazy idea. But it does not sound as if that is the way anyone is thinking.

“No. No,’’ Daboll said Tuesday. “If they are ready and capable to go, then they’ll be playing.’’

It is not accurate to describe the mood in the visitors’ locker room inside Lincoln Financial Field as devastated. The Giants were not that, even though this latest loss officially eliminated them from playoff contention.

The Giants have done too much losing in that building — it’s now 11 straight losses at the Linc — to feel devastated by one more. There was plenty of frustration, to be sure, and disgust and a sick-and-tired vibe.

For all the players, young and old, signed for 2024 or not, there is no benefit to losing. None. That needs to be remembered the next time a loss is celebrated.

Want to catch a game? The Giants schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

The state of the Birds

Maybe the standard is set too high. Maybe we expect too much from the Eagles, thinking they should not only win, but win easily.

Against the Giants, they snapped a three-game losing streak, but they did not exactly look fantastic doing it. They turned the ball over on a self-inflicted fumble on a kickoff return. Tight end Dallas Goedert slipped on a route that allowed Giants cornerback Adoree’ Jackson to swoop in for a 76-yard interception return for a touchdown. The Eagles took a 20-3 lead at halftime and had to sweat out the victory in the second half with the game not decided until the final play.

Did this game reveal more about Eagles vulnerabilities than it did Giants failings?

“Yeah, shoot, feels good, right?’’ Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “Obviously, we have some things to clean up, but good energy to get back on the right side of things. Always better feeling correcting the tape after a win than after a loss, that’s for sure. So, we needed to get out of the funk that we were in, and sometimes that’s just by getting a win.’’

Quarterback Jalen Hurts said, “I would love to say we’re close, and I think it is trending in the right direction. We demand such excellence of ourselves. When you have the type of guys we have on our team, everybody’s going to be eager to grow, everybody’s going to be eager for more. But when did winning not become the main thing?”

It is the main thing. The Eagles are 11-4, yet they have outscored their opponents by a total of just 26 points. Their margins are much thinner than they were a season ago, when they made it to the Super Bowl.

Just for kicks

Doesn’t it seem as if you can flip from game to game each week and see some kicker nailing a field goal in excess of 50 or 55 yards? Has there ever been a time in the NFL with more kicking prowess?

Heck, 39-year-old Mason Crosby, after 16 years with the Packers, made his Giants debut and connected on a 52-yard field goal for the team’s first points in the loss to the Eagles. Crosby had been out of the league before last week.

With that kick, Crosby joined Graham Gano, Randy Bullock and punter Jamie Gillan as Giants players to attempt a field goal this season.

The last time four different players attempted a field goal in one season for the Giants was 1965: Bob Timberlake (1-for-15 on field-goal tries), Andy Stynchula (3-for-7), Chuck Mercein (0-for-2) and Jerry Hildebrand (0-for-1). Those four kickers combined to miss 21 of 25 of their field-goal attempts. How times have changed.

Asked and answered

Here are two questions that have come up recently that we will attempt to answer as accurately as possible:

It seemed as if the Giants did not handle the closing seconds of the game well. They should have been able to get off more than one more real play in the final 26 seconds. What happened?

Darren Waller hauled in a 20-yard pass from Tyrod Taylor to the Eagles’ 26-yard line, but got leveled in the back after making the catch. Waller was shaken up and wanted to come off the field to prevent a 10-second injury runoff on the game clock. Waller never made it off the field. The official near the play picked up the ball as the Giants were hurrying to the line of scrimmage and did not do his job — he did not show any urgency in placing the ball.

Realizing that, Barkley raced over, took the ball from the official and ran it to the umpire. By that time, all Taylor could do was to spike the ball with four seconds remaining, setting up one final pass by Taylor that was intercepted in the end zone.

Barkley was hot about this after the game. The officials need to be better in that situation.

What happened to Jalin Hyatt? Why has he disappeared from the offense?

Yeah, it is pretty glaring, isn’t it? Hyatt was really frustrated with himself after he was targeted three times in New Orleans and did not catch a single pass. He felt as if he let down the team and was motivated to do more the next time out.

Hyatt was on the field for 35 of the 61 offensive snaps against the Eagles. There were 32 passes by the Giants — 16 apiece from Tommy DeVito and Taylor — and not one of them were directed at Hyatt.

When Hyatt caught five passes for 109 yards — both career highs — in the victory over the Patriots it felt like a breakout performance that could lead to a strong finish. That is not happening. Hyatt is trending downward down the stretch. In the past three games, he has two total receptions for 13 yards. Is this he is hitting a rookie wall?