The offseason officially began for the Detroit Lions Sunday after their 35-11 victory over the Green Bay Packers in the regular season finale.
Now the focus shifts to free agency and the draft, and the important job of GM Bob Quinn's to improve this roster so Detroit can get back to being a playoff contender.
Speaking of the draft, the Lions now know where they'll be picking this year.
The 1-20 slots are made up of the 20 teams that did not qualify for the playoffs. Detroit's 9-7 record has earned them the 20th pick in this year's NFL Draft. The Cleveland Browns (0-16) have the No. 1 overall pick.
After the top 20, the order is based on how the teams in the playoffs finish. The four teams that lose in the Wild Card round of the playoffs next weekend will occupy slots 21-24 based on winning percentage.
The subsequent losers in each round of the playoffs after that will be slotted as such until the final two spots – Numbers 31 and 32 – are occupied by the Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl loser.
In the case of teams finishing with identical winning percentages, strength of schedule is the tiebreaker. The team with the lowest strength of schedule percentage wins the tiebreaker and picks ahead of all other teams with the same record. Divisional and conference records are the next tie-breaking scenarios. As a last resort, a coin toss is used to determine the order of selection for teams with the same winning percentage.
(Note: A coin flip at the NFL Scouting Combine next month will determine the No. 9 & No. 10 picks between San Francisco and Oakland).
Here's a look at the draft order for the non-playoff teams:
- Cleveland, 0-16
- New York Giants, 3-13
- Indianapolis, 4-12
- Cleveland (via Texans), 4-12
- Denver, 5-11
- New York Jets, 5-11
- Tampa Bay, 5-11
- Chicago, 5-11
- (tie) San Francisco, 6-10
- (tie) Oakland, 6-10
- Miami, 6-10
- Cincinnati, 7-9
- Washington, 7-9
- Green Bay, 7-9
- Arizona, 8-8
- Baltimore, 9-7
- San Diego, 9-7
- Seattle, 9-7
- Dallas, 9-7
- Detroit, 9-7
