Giants GM addresses idea of NFL Draft lottery

Whether or not the NFL should embrace a lottery similar to the methods used by the NBA and NHL for determining when teams make picks during drafts became a hotly debated topic this month. 

During a Thursday appearance on the FanDuel TV "Up & Adams" program, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen shared why he is not a fan of the NFL following in the footsteps of those other leagues. 

"I would not be in favor of that," Schoen said about a possible NFL Draft lottery, per Ryan Novozinsky of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "Typically, if you’re picking up there, what’s the most important position for a franchise? If you’re in that position, you’ve probably earned the right to hopefully get [a franchise quarterback who] can hopefully turn the luck around on the franchise for potentially 15 to 20 years."

Schoen knows plenty about that, as his team "earned" the right to pick third in this year's draft. He used that asset to grab Penn State pass-rusher Abdul Carter but later traded back into the draft's first round to select quarterback Jaxson Dart at overall pick No. 25. 

Discussions about the NFL possibly changing to a lottery format for drafts were recently resurrected after the Dallas Mavericks shockingly won the 2025 NBA Draft lottery when they had only a 1.8% chance to get the No. 1 pick for this year's player-selection process. The Mavericks essentially punted on the remainder of the 2024-25 season when they traded superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February. 

"I thought that was intriguing to see the percentage chance that Dallas would get the first pick," Schoen acknowledged about following the latest NBA Draft lottery. "I put myself in the GM seat after what happened with the trade and everything else and thought, 'Boy, that worked out for [Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison].'"

This past Wednesday, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated noted he doesn't "think the NFL’s going to do a draft lottery anytime soon" because "there hasn’t been much of an appetite for it" and because "'tanking' hasn’t been that big of an issue" for the league. It seems unlikely such a drastic change would occur before the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association expires after the 2030 season.