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With the regular season officially having come to an end. . .well, save for the Dallas Cowboys/Philadelphia Eagles Sunday Night Football game. . .the order for the 2014 NFL Draft is pretty much set at this point.
The Minnesota Vikings, after their 14-13 victory over the Detroit Lions at the Metrodome, will select at #8 overall as things stand right now. They would be sitting at #8 even if they had lost to Detroit. The teams that were in the third through seventh spots when the day started all lost, and would have stayed ahead of Minnesota even had the Vikings not come back to defeat the Lions.
As NYVikeFan pointed out in the comments, the tie against the Green Bay Packers wound up not really making any difference. Had they won that game, they would have finished at 6-10, but they would still have a lower opponent win-loss percentage than the Buffalo Bills (who are at #9), so the Vikings would still be at #8. Had they lost, they'd be the NFL's only 5-11 team and still selecting in the #8 position.
The Houston Texans secured the #1 overall pick by dropping their fourteenth straight game, losing to the Tennessee Titans. The St. Louis Rams will select at #2 overall, as they have the selection of the Washington Redskins, who lost to the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon.
The top 20 selections. . .those of the non-playoff teams. . .for the 2014 NFL Draft look like this:
1. Houston Texans - 2-14 (.559 opponents win-loss percentage)
2. St. Louis Rams (via Washington Redskins) - 3-13 (.516)
3. Jacksonville Jaguars - 4-12 (.504)
4. Cleveland Browns - 4-12 (.516)
5. Oakland Raiders - 4-12 (.524)
6. Atlanta Falcons - 4-12 (.553)
7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 4-12 (.573)
8. Minnesota Vikings - 5-10-1 (.512)
9. Buffalo Bills - 6-10 (.520)
10. Detroit Lions - 7-9 (.457)
11. Tennessee Titans - 7-9 (.504)
12. New York Giants - 7-9 (.520)
13. St. Louis Rams - 7-9 (.553)
14. Chicago Bears - 8-8 (.465)
15. Pittsburgh Steelers - 8-8 (.469)
16. Baltimore Ravens - 8-8 (.484)
17. New York Jets - 8-8 (.488)
18. Miami Dolphins - 8-8 (.523)
19. Dallas Cowboys - 8-7 (.473)
20. Arizona Cardinals - 10-6 (.529)
Picks 16 through 19 will be determined after tonight's Sunday Night Football game. Arizona is locked into the #20 spot.
So there you have it, folks. . .bring forth the mock drafts and such!