We officially hit the halfway point of the 2026 NFL regular season slate on Thursday Night Football with Week 10. By next Monday night, every team in the league will have played at least nine of its 18 games. And while it's still awfully early, the first-place New York Giants (5-2-1) would take another huge step toward their first NFC East title in 15 years tonight by beating the third-place Washington Commanders (2-5-1). It's a typical TNF kick of 8:15 ET streaming on Prime Video.
The NFL's Trade Deadline passed Tuesday, and neither of these clubs made a big move even though it is known the Giants were out looking. Coach John Harbaugh, who really runs the show, called the Titans a few weeks ago about Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, but the Bears won that bidding. New York also tried to pry loose Pro Bowl running back Jonathan Taylor from the Colts, but Indy decided to keep him for some reason.
Frankly, the Giants already may have saved their season by trading for quarterback J.J. McCarthy from the Vikings a few weeks ago and are good enough as is to win the division. Or should I say the rest of the East is weak enough to give it to them. Big Blue is the -220 favorite. A win here would clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Commanders, not that I think they are much of a threat. The Eagles aren't threats, either, so it will come down to the Cowboys (+250 for the East). New York currently holds that tiebreaker thanks to a Week 1 victory and visits AT&T Stadium in Week 17.
The model gives the Giants a 60% shot at the division and 61.9% at the playoffs -- the NFC East is most likely a one-playoff-team division with how good the NFC North and West are. A win tonight increases the Giants' division chances to 78.0%, while a loss drops it to 44.0%. So, yeah, it's big. Dallas is a home underdog Sunday vs. San Francisco, incidentally.
Washington is in limbo: Not good enough to make a playoff run but too talented to tank for Jeremiah Smith atop the 2027 NFL Draft. Can you imagine Smith and Jayden Daniels on the same club? At this point, it's whether the Commanders show enough in the second half of the season to justify bringing head coach Dan Quinn back in 2027.
There might be three new coaches next year in the division in Washington, Dallas and Philadelphia (think that's a lock change). Still no NFL head coach firings yet, and Quinn is the +600 third-favorite currently on that prop behind the Colts' Shane Steichen (-175) and Jets' Aaron Glenn (+150). That's pretty much how I think it should be.
We'll take you through every aspect of the Commanders vs. Giants game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and anything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the prime-time matchup.
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