Eli Manning didn’t exactly shut down the idea of Arch Manning ending up with the New York Jets. If anything, he leaned right into it.
Speaking on the Pardon My Take podcast, the former Giants quarterback said, “For purely selfish reasons, I wouldn’t mind if [Arch] went to the Jets,” a line that instantly gives the crosstown conversation a little extra fuel.
The family already knows what it looks like to make noise in New York. Eli Manning delivered two Super Bowl titles to the Giants, and now his nephew is being discussed as a possible future answer for the Jets, who are trying to steady a shaky start to the season.
That start is already putting the draft on the radar. New York sits at 1-3, and the numbers aren’t flattering: PerThirtySix has the Jets with the third-worst Elo rating in the league, ahead of only the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins. They also have the eighth-hardest remaining schedule by opponent win percentage, a tougher path than Tennessee and Miami, who are tied for 19th.
The Jets already beat the Titans in Week 1, and they still have two games left against the Dolphins, a team many view as the favorite for the No. 1 pick. Those meetings could matter a lot if New York can’t get itself back on track.
Arch Manning, meanwhile, is sitting at the center of a very different kind of conversation. He currently leads the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns and has the second-best odds to go first in the 2027 NFL draft, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Only Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith sits ahead of him.
New York also has a possible draft cushion. The Jets hold two additional first-round picks in the 2027 draft, one from the Indianapolis Colts and another from either the Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys, whichever is higher. Right now, they own the sixth, 11th, and 12th overall picks, which at least gives them the ammunition to move up if they decide to chase a quarterback.
The timing makes all of this even louder. After a promising opener in Nashville, the Jets have dropped three straight and now enter Week 5 at a crossroads in their 2026 season.
A loss to the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium would send the conversation spinning even further toward the draft. A win would push them to 2-0 in the AFC, within one game of .500, and set up a chance to get there in Week 6 against the division-rival New England Patriots.
For now, the Arch-to-New York chatter has Eli’s stamp on it. And if the Jets can’t handle Deshaun Watson and the Browns, that talk is only going to get louder. Aaron Glenn will need his team to do the talking on Sunday if he wants the headlines to stay on football instead of next year’s draft - and whether he’ll even be running it.
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