As we noted last night, the Eagles will be picking at #15 in this April's NFL draft. But how did it happen?
The Eagles were one of seven teams to finish at 8-8, so strength of schedule decided the difference between pick #13 and pick #19. The Cardinals "won" that race with the weakest schedule having played in the poor NFC West. The Eagles and Cowboys also benefited from playing playing the NFC West as well as their own mediocre division schedule. The big loser was the Bears, who dropped to #19 thanks to having played the Packers and Lions twice as well as the Falcons and Saints of the NFC South.
The difference between the Eagles 15th pick and Arizona at #13 was about .02%. Here are the strength of schedules for the 8-8 teams.
Cardinals - .469
Cowboys - .473
Eagles - .488
Jets - .500
Raiders - .504
Chargers - .516
Bears - .527
That said, perhaps the biggest loser was the Tennessee Titans, who won their final game against Houston but was eliminated from the playoffs anyway. Had they lost that game, they would have picked at #13. Instead, they win what ends up being a meaningless game and fell to the #20 slot.
After the jump is the full confirmed draft order for the non playoff teams.
1. Colts
2. Rams
3. Vikings
4. Browns
5. Buccaneers
6. Redskins
7. Jaguars
8. Panthers *
9. Dolphins *
10. Bills
11. Chiefs *
12. Seahawks *
13. Cardinals
14. Cowboys
15. Eagles
16. Jets
17. Raiders
18. Chargers
19. Bears
20. Titans
* These teams have identical records and strength of schedule, so their order will be determined by a coin flip.