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2016 NFL Draft Order Still Largely Up For Grabs

A look at how the draft order for the 2016 NFL Draft is shaping up.

Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images

Heading into Week 16, not one of the 32 draft spots have been decided yet.

As it stands today, the 4-10 Cowboys hold the fifth overall draft pick, but that draft spot remains as fluid as ever. The Cowboys are just one win ahead of 3-11 Titans, who currently hold the No. 1 overall spot, and two wins behind the 17th overall spot currently held by the 6-10 Rams.

A loss against the Bills and a highly unlikely win by the Ravens over the Steelers could see the Cowboys move up into the fourth overall spot, but a win against the Bills, coupled with a few other improbable but not inconceivable game results, could still see the Cowboys drop all the way to the 9th spot.

For many other teams, the draft spots also remain very fluid heading into the final two regular season games, though the Titans have a chance to lock up the No. 1 spot this weekend. Because they’d hold the all-important draft order tiebreaker of strength of schedule over the 3-11 Browns (.489 to .535), a Titans loss against Houston and a Browns win in Kansas City would secure them the top draft spot with one game still left to play.

Here's the full draft order with the results of the Thursday Night game included (Strength of schedule based on full 16-game schedule)

Order Team Record Strength Of Schedule
1 Tennessee Titans 3-11 0.489
2 Cleveland Browns 3-11 0.535
3 San Diego Chargers 4-11 0.522
4 Baltimore Ravens 4-10 0.518
5 Dallas Cowboys 4-10 0.540
6 San Francisco 49ers 4-10 0.549
7 Jacksonville Jaguars 5-9 0.462
8 Miami Dolphins 5-9 0.471
9 New Orleans Saints 5-9 0.513
10 Detroit Lions 5-9 0.531
11 Chicago Bears 5-9 0.540
12 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6-8 0.478
13 New York Giants 6-8 0.496
14 Indianapolis Colts 6-8 0.504
15 Philadelphia Eagles 6-8 0.513
16 Buffalo Bills 6-8 0.518
17 St. Louis Rams 6-8 0.531
18 Oakland Raiders 7-8 0.504
19 Atlanta Falcons* 7-7 0.478
20 Washington Redskins 7-7 0.478
21 Houston Texans 7-7 0.500
22 New York Jets 9-5 0.444
23 Kansas City Chiefs 9-5 0.487
24 Minnesota Vikings 9-5 0.504
25 Pittsburgh Steelers 9-5 0.509
26 Seattle Seahawks 9-5 0.527
27 Denver Broncos 10-4 0.500
28 Green Bay Packers 10-4 0.518
29 Cincinnati Bengals 11-3 0.469
30 New England Patriots 12-2 0.460
31 Arizona Cardinals 12-2 0.469
32 Carolina Panthers 14-0 0.442
* Atlanta wins tiebreak vs. Washington on division record

Reminder: These are the rules for determining the draft order for the 2016 draft:

  1. Teams that make the playoffs receive the last 12 draft picks from position 21-32, ordered by which round of the playoffs they were eliminated.
  2. Teams that didn't make the playoffs are ordered by their regular season W/L record.
  3. The tiebreaker for teams with identical records is the Strength of Schedule or Opponent W/L record. For the draft order, the lower SOS results in an earlier pick.
  4. If the SOS does not resolve a tie, a division and then conference tiebreaker is used. If that fails as well, draft order is determined by a coin toss during the combine.

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