2015 NFL Draft Order Heading Into Week 17

With one week remaining in the 2014 NFL season, we’ll have all eyes on playoff scenarios and 2015 NFL Draft positioning as the season shockingly comes to a close (didn’t we just start watching football?). As it currently stands, here is the draft order heading into week 17 action on Sunday, and there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind.

With a loss on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have earned the right to pick first overall in the draft. If the Buccaneers win against the Saints and the Tennessee Titans lose to the Indianapolis Colts, then the Titans will hold the number one pick. If both the Buccaneers and Titans win their respective games, the Buccaneers will be in line to pick first overall.

On Sunday, unless there are picks to be determined by a coin flip, we will know the order of the top 20 selections with the final 12 picks to be decided by playoff action. The NFC South has all 12 teams currently in the top 12 selections, but that will change once one of Atlanta or Carolina wins the division on Sunday afternoon. Then, that team will be pushed to the 21st overall pick since they’ll be the team with the worst record in the playoffs, and so forth.

The most surprising pick on this list based on pre-season prognosis is undoubtedly the Chicago Bears, who I thought could contend for the NFC North this season. Clearly that was a miss. The Bears are slated to pick 7th right now and Jay Cutler will start their final game this season and perhaps his final game as a member of the team.

On the other end, I’m most shocked to see the Cardinals as good as they are with their quarterback woes. If Carson Palmer had been playing all season, it would be one thing. For them to have done as well as they have with four different players at that position is remarkable.