Owners Approve Draft Order Change for 2010

The NFL has decided to change the selection order for the Draft starting next year.

Under the new draft order, which will take effect in 2010, the order of teams not in the playoffs is still based on record -- i.e., the team with the worst record will receive the No. 1 draft pick.

For the rest, there will be a reseeding based on how far the teams go in the playoffs. For example, the losers of the wild-card games will be seeded 21st through 24th based on their records.

This means the last twelve picks go to the twelve Playoff teams regardless of record. In other words, the Jets would pick ahead of San Diego even though Gang Green's 9-7 record was better than San Diego's 8-8 because the Chargers made the Playoffs, and the Jets did not. The last eight picks of a given round go to the Divisional Playoffs participants, and the last four go to teams in the Conference Championship Games. The league already used this formula with the Super Bowl participants. It is logical because of the San Diego situation. Even though the Jets had a better record, the Chargers had a more successful season by virtue of their run in January. The Draft lends itself to the idea of helping needier teams more.