How to determine the draft order?

[braven112]

Since I've been learning the art of tie-breakers courtesy of bonscott, I found myself reading up on how the NFL determines their draft order and I liked the basic concept a little better using the same ones as the playoffs. This is a summary from a draft article I just read, basically sums up the NFL process ...

1. If two teams have the same record but one made the playoffs while the other one did not, then the team that did not make the playoffs picks first.

2. If two teams with the same record both make the playoffs, then the team that is eliminated from the playoffs first gets to pick first. If they both get eliminated in the same round, the teams go on to the next tiebreaker.

3. The next tiebreaker is strength of schedule. This is determined by calculating the combined record of the 16 opponents of each team. The records of divisional opponents are counted twice because they are each played twice. The combined number of wins and losses for each team adds up to 256. The team whose opponents combined for the fewest wins has the weaker strength of schedule and gets to pick first. That's because the team that gets the same record against weaker opponents is the weaker team.

4. It is quite possible that there will still be a tie after looking at strength of schedule. This is especially common with teams in the same division because their opponents can mostly be the same. If this is a situation, the next way to break the tie is to look at the division and conference standings. If one of the teams ranks lower than the other in those standings because of the tiebreakers they use then they will pick first in the draft.

5. Occasionally, a tie will still exist after all those possibilities have been exhausted. In that case there is a coin toss at the NFL Combine, and the winning team picks first.

I was thinking of adding Fewest Regular Season Potential Points as the #3 and moving the others down and using Fewest Regular Season Points Against instead of Strength of Victory since that is basically the same thing.

I like the potential points tiebreaker as it seems to reward the worse team between the two (or more) as opposed to the worse coach, who left good players on the bench.

Obviously not changing anything for this draft just floating this out their for future drafts. Thoughts?

[bonscott]

I can go with pretty much anything but I think with this one I'd prefer to keep it simple. So just reverse order of regular season finish like we have today. I wouldn't mind seeing the playoff teams all ordered by how they finished in the playoffs but other then that I like it simple. Math is hard.

[braven112]

I can go with pretty much anything but I think with this one I'd prefer to keep it simple. So just reverse order of regular season finish like we have today. I wouldn't mind seeing the playoff teams all ordered by how they finished in the playoffs but other then that I like it simple. Math is hard.

I agree I'm just referring to the tiebreakers after overall record. So instead of applying a separate tiebreakers for the number of teams and using power rank or h to h we'll just use overall record followed by potential points as the main tiebreaker.

[bonscott]

I'll just say I don't like using "potential" points for anything. It's just that, potential. You could say it rewards a deep bench but it also can reward a bad coach who starts the wrong players. If I didn't start the guy then it doesn't count. My thoughts anyway.

[braven112]

I'll just say I don't like using "potential" points for anything. It's just that, potential. You could say it rewards a deep bench but it also can reward a bad coach who starts the wrong players. If I didn't start the guy then it doesn't count. My thoughts anyway.

The reason for bringing it up is that it actually has the opposite effect when used to pick draft picks. Since bad coaches aren't reward for starting the wrong players, you won't be rewarded with a higher draft pick by playing poor players.

Currenlty bad coaches are rewarded with the best draft picks when they may not have the worst team. I don't think its a big issue for our league but it also discourages tanking (or subtle tanking) since you aren't going to get rewarded for starting a bad lineup.

Maybe you now agree since those are the reason that other leagues use it.

And keep in mind I'm only suggesting it as a tiebreaker after W-L record.

We could remove potential points from the tiebreakers I suggested as well, but overall I like how the NFL does their draft tiebreakers more than our current ones.