When a team ties with the same record it is always questioned how the NFL draft order is determined between teams. Now it is time to explain how the draft order works.
The NFL Draft is an event that comes around every April while traveling to different cities that host NFL franchises for an event that can change the fortune of any team forever. Every year the NFL draft order is much simpler to decipher than say something like the NBA or the NHL draft. Those other draft formats run a lottery approach where the worst teams that miss the playoffs get different odds based on where they finish and it is randomly selected. In the NFL, it is easier to determine as it is based on record and eventual success in the playoffs on how the order is settled. The only question comes between tiebreakers and divisional records.
The draft is a record based system that basically works like this: if the Miami Dolphins have the worst record in the NFL this season at 2-15, and they are the only team with that record, they will get the number one overall pick. On the other hand if the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers, then the Niners would get the 31st overall pick and the Chiefs would have the 32nd. The other teams that miss the playoffs get slotted in between picks 1-18 and the teams that make the playoffs pick from 19-32. The playoff teams order is determined by how far each team goes in the playoffs and then by record. If the Panthers lose in the wild card round and have the worst record among the playoff teams at 8-9, they have the 19th pick. Easy peasy and quite simple to determine. Now the wrinkle in the draft becomes when teams share the same record and the NFL has to determine the tiebreakers between teams to see who picks first and all that jazz.
The tiebreaker that the NFL uses to split up teams that have the same record is based off of strength of schedule. Basically the combined winning percentage of the opponents each team played. Let’s say the Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets finish 4-13 and the Titans opponents finish with a winning percentage of .691 and the Jets opponents finish with a winning percentage of .492. Then the edge would go to the Titans picking higher in the draft because they had a gauntlet of a schedule. Now say both teams' opponents held a combined winning percentage of .500. Now the split gets determined by division and conference tiebreakers. This means that the NFL takes a look at if there was a head-to-head game involved; if they played the same opponents and if so what were the results? In this scenario, the Titans would still pick higher as these two teams played in week one and the Jets won 23-10 over them. If all of these results are exactly the same and they cannot decide, a last resort coin toss is held at the NFL scouting combine to determine the order between the teams.
The NFL draft order is simple enough to determine on its own compared to the NBA and other drafts. The only thing that needs to be worried about and calculated is the tiebreakers between strength of schedule, head-to-head and similar opponents. Once you can get through the weeds of having to deal with all of those numbers, you can calculate the NFL Draft order.
