As we turn our attention over the final month of the season for the Arizona Cardinals to the 2024 NFL draft. Entering Week 14, they had the third pick in the draft behind the Chicago Bears, who own the one-win Carolina Panthers’ first-round pick, and the two-win New England Patriots.
The Cardinals have three wins and are idle on their bye in Week 14.
To open Week 14, the Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-18 on Thursday night, improving to 3-10.
However, the draft order will not change. While both the Cardinals and Patriots are 3-10, New England is second and the Cardinals third because of strength of schedule.
As of Friday according to Tankathon, the Patriots’ strength of schedule is .526 and the Cardinals’ is .558.
For the NFL draft, the tiebreaker is strength of schedule, with the higher selection going to the team with the weaker strength of schedule.
Essentially if two teams have the same record and one has it against weaker opponents, they are the worse team and need the higher pick more.
The rest of Week 14 still needs to play out, but when we look at the updated draft order next week, the top three will not change. The Bears will have the first pick, then the Patriots and then the Cardinals.
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