Draft Order

The only sure thing in the NFL right now is that twenty teams have entered the offseason. The highlight of every NFL offseason is the Draft. Seventeen teams now know where they will select in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft in May. May! The Draft is supposed to be in April. It's not in April this year and perhaps never will be again. Here is the Draft Order for that late Draft in early May:

1. Houston Texans
2. St. Louis Rams
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. Cleveland Browns
5. Oakland Raiders
6. Atlanta Falcons
7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8. Minnesota Vikings
9. Buffalo Bills
10. Detroit Lions
11. Tennessee Titans
12. New York Giants
13. St. Louis Rams
14. Chicago Bears
15. Pittsburgh Steelers
16/17. Baltimore Ravens/Dallas Cowboys
18. New York Jets
19. Miami Dolphins
20. Arizona Cardinals

The Ravens and Cowboys will go to a coin flip to settle the 16 and 17 spots in the Draft.

Two years ago, the Redskins traded with the Rams to move up to the #2 spot so that they could select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. This year, the Redskins will be giving the #2 spot to Rams as part of that trade. The Rams now have the #2 and #13 selections in the draft. This could be a huge swing for an emerging football team. The NFC West is one of the toughest divisions in the league. If Sam Bradford is the elite quarterback that he was drafted to be, the Rams are a couple offensive linemen away from being right there with the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, and Arizona Cardinals. The battle for the NFC West in the coming years will be brutal.

Last year, the Atlanta Falcons were one pass away from a trip to the Super Bowl. This year, nail-biting losses and injuries kept the Falcons from gaining any traction. Twelve losses, several of the nail-biting variety, earned them the sixth pick in the first round. This is a very talented team selecting very high in the draft. Perhaps a pass rusher like UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr away from an immediate turnaround.

The Vikings finished this very disappointing season at 5-10-1. That's a record usually sad enough to earn a top-5 pick. Not this year. The Vikings select at #8. Five teams finished the season with a 4-12 record. Two other teams had records worse than that.

Four of the teams that finished with five wins or less were in the playoffs last year. The Texans, Redskins, Falcons, and Vikings all dashed high expectations.

Twenty teams are looking for answers. Six of those are looking for coaches. Actually, it looks like five are looking for coaches now.

Penn St. coach Bill O'Brien was one of the hottest coaching targets this year. The Houston Texans may have fired Gary Kubiak early so that they'd be first in line to interview O'Brien. No matter, I think that the Texans offered a pretty attractive coaching opportunity no matter when it came open. It looks like the Texans got their man. I don't like it at all. Penn St. was hurting like no college should ever be hurting when Bill O'Brien arrived in Happy Valley. No one at the campus was guilty of the crimes for which they were being punished. O'Brien brought a sense of calm and normalcy that Penn St. greatly needed. I wish that he would have stayed there through the punishments that his team never deserved.