For NFL fans in Denver, New York, Miami, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Houston week 17 is all about the drama of winning and getting enough help to get into the NFL playoffs. Week 17 holds different drama for NFL fans in St. Louis Detroit, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and Kansas City.
The drama for these cities will all be about who will end up with the first overall pick and the best shot at drafting DT Ndamukong Suh. Right now the St. Louis Rams have the worst NFL record with just one win. However, should they win this week against the San Francisco 49ers, and should the Detroit Lions lose to Chicago, some very interesting math or even a coin flip would determine who gets the first overall pick.
According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, a tie breaker between the Lions and the Rams, based on reverse strength of schedule, would be very close. Depending on how Week 17 plays out these two teams could be faced with a coin flip to determine which of them get the first pick in the 2010 draft.
The tiebreaker for draft picks amongst two teams that did not make the playoffs is reverse strength of schedule. The team determined to have the greater strength of schedule would get the lower draft pick. However there is a particular weight put on head to head contests.
Since the Lions loss to the Rams in week eight, the Lions just need the Rams to win against the San Francisco 49ers. However, since the math is so close, the Lions could also use losses by the Steelers, Bengals, Browns, Jaguars, Ravens and the Seahawks on Sunday to complete their quest for their second first overall pick in a row.
So let us set up the scenarios here. For the Rams all they have to do is lose finishing 2009 with a 1-15 record, and they get the first overall pick. The Lions need to lose to Chicago, have the Rams win, and to make the math work better have some of the above teams lose.
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