How Is the NFL Draft Order Determined?

CREDIT: sxc.hu View full size image

The tension and excitement are building for this year’s National Football League Draft. Success in the coming season relies in part on a team’s ability to make smart picks from among the hopeful college players.

Most fans know that their team's performance during the last season will determine its selection spot in this year's draft. But the exact method of deciding this order is a mystery to a lot of us.

The draft began as a way to level the playing field. Until 1936, college players were free to sign with any team, and the stronger teams naturally attracted the top talent. While good for those teams, this lack of balance made for some boring football games. So the owners adopted a plan that let the teams select college players in the reverse order of their finish in the previous season. Since then, more than 10,000 players have been picked to get their shot at NFL glory.

The NFL has a complete system of rules to determine the draft order. Here is the breakdown, from the number one pick to the last:

1. Whenever the NFL expands into a new city, it rewards the expansion team with the first pick in that year's draft.
2. Most years, there is no expansion team, and the team with the worst regular season record gets the honor of being first in the draft.
3. Next, the other teams that did not make the NFL playoffs are placed based on their season records. The team with second worst record makes the next pick, and so on.
4. Of course, there may be teams with identical records. Officials break this tie by comparing the strengths of the teams' schedules. By adding the combined wins and losses of the 16 opponents each team faced in the previous season, a ranking is created to judge who had the tougher year. The reward for battling a tougher group of opponents is a later pick in the draft. If needed, further tie-breakers can also be used.
5. Then, the playoff teams are ordered by their success in the playoffs. Teams that just barely made the playoffs and lost the wild-card games get the next draft spots, followed by the team that played but lost the division championships, then  the conference championship losers.
6. Finally, the Super Bowl loser gets the second to last pick, and the World Champions make their choice last.

The very last player drafted wins the dubious title of "Mr. Irrelevant." Still, that may be better than the alternative.

• Who is the Oldest Player in the NFL?
• Why NFL Players Suffer Dementia, Depression
• Midseason Coaching Changes Don't Work

Dan Peterson writes about sports science at Sports Are 80 Percent Mental.