Updated November 12, 2026
The NFL draft order is set by reverse order of finish. Teams that miss the playoffs pick first, with the worst record at No. 1, and playoff teams follow based on how far they went, ending with the Super Bowl champion at No. 32. Ties in record are broken first by strength of schedule. This explainer walks through each part of the order using the league's own published procedure, and explains why traded picks and compensatory picks change what a team actually holds.
The Basic Rule: Worst Record Picks First
NFL Football Operations' draft rules page puts it simply: "The order of selection is determined by the reverse order of finish in the previous season. Barring any trades between clubs, each round starts with the team that finished with the worst record and ends with the Super Bowl champions."
Every team gets one pick in each of the seven rounds, per the same page, and the order is the same in every round except for how ties rotate, which is covered below. A team's record in the season just finished is what counts, so the 2026 standings will set the order for the 2027 draft.
Picks 1 Through 18: Teams That Missed the Playoffs
The league's tie-breaking procedures for the draft, published on NFL.com under "Selection Meeting," say that clubs not in the playoffs "shall select in the first through 18th positions in reverse-standings order." With 14 playoff teams, 18 teams miss the postseason, and they fill the first 18 slots by regular-season record only. Playoff results do not matter for these teams.
A note on sources: the NFL Football Operations draft page still describes non-playoff teams picking 1 through 20 and Wild Card losers picking 21 through 24, which matches the older 12-team playoff format. The NFL.com selection-meeting procedure, with six Wild Card losers, matches the current 14-team playoff field and is the one used here. Our explainer on how the NFL playoffs work covers the 14-team field.
Picks 19 Through 32: Playoff Teams by Round
Playoff teams are grouped by the round in which they were eliminated. Within each group, the team with the worse regular-season record picks earlier. Per NFL.com:
- 19-24: the six teams that lost in the Wild Card round.
- 25-28: the four teams that lost in the Divisional round.
- 29-30: the two teams that lost in the conference championship games.
- 31: the Super Bowl loser.
- 32: the Super Bowl winner.
That means a team can win more regular-season games than a non-playoff team and still pick later, which is why a division winner with a modest record never picks in the top 18.
How Ties in Record Are Broken
When teams in the same group finish with the same record, the first tiebreaker is strength of schedule. NFL.com describes it as "the aggregate won-lost-tied percentage of each involved club's regular-season opponents," and the club that "faced the schedule of teams with the lowest aggregate won-lost-tied percentage" gets the earlier pick. In plain terms, between two teams with the same record, the one that played the easier schedule picks first.
If strength of schedule is also tied, the league applies its division or conference tiebreakers for teams in the same division or conference. Our guide to NFL playoff tiebreakers lays out those steps. For two teams from different conferences, NFL.com lists this order:
- Head-to-head result, if they played.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, with a minimum of four.
- Strength of victory in all games.
- Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
- Best net points in all games.
- Best net touchdowns in all games.
- Coin toss.
Ties of three or more teams from different conferences go through division, conference and interconference steps to find the lowest-ranked team first, and the process repeats until the order is set.
Why Tied Teams Swap Spots Each Round
A tiebreaker does not fix the same order for all seven rounds. NFL.com says clubs in a two-team tie "will alternate positions from round to round." In a tie of three or more, the team at the top of the tied group in one round moves to the bottom of that group in the next, and the others each move up one place. So a team that wins a tiebreaker for the earlier first-round pick picks later in the second round.
Traded Picks and Compensatory Picks
The order sets where each pick falls, but not who owns it. Teams trade picks during the season and at the draft itself. This season, for example, the Titans received 2027 and 2028 first-round picks from the Bears in the Jeffery Simmons trade, per NFL.com's trade tracker. Where those picks land depends on Chicago's finish, not Tennessee's.
Compensatory picks are added on top of the regular order. The NFL Football Operations page says the league can award up to 32 compensatory picks for net losses in free agency, placed at the end of rounds three through seven, with a maximum of four per team. Special compensatory third-round picks also go to clubs that lose a woman or person of color from their staff to another club as a head coach or primary football executive. Our explainer on how NFL compensatory picks work covers the formula. Those picks can matter at the deadline too: the Bengals backed out of a deadline-day trade on November 10 because it would have cost them a third-round compensatory pick, per NFL.com.
When the 2027 Order Is Known
The first 18 picks are set once the regular season ends, since only regular-season records and tiebreakers decide them. The rest of the first round fills in as teams are eliminated in the playoffs, and the full order is set after the Super Bowl. Midseason standings give a rough idea of where teams might pick, but records keep changing through Week 18, and strength of schedule is not final until every game is played.
Featured photo: fans at the 2023 NFL Draft at Union Station in Kansas City, by Cpl. Alexis Moradian, U.S. Marine Corps, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain), cropped with a short banner.
NFL Draft Order: Frequently Asked Questions
How is the NFL draft order determined?
By reverse order of finish. The 18 non-playoff teams pick 1 through 18 by record, then playoff teams pick 19 through 32 based on the round they were eliminated, with the Super Bowl champion last.
What is the first tiebreaker for NFL draft order?
Strength of schedule. Among teams with the same record, the one whose opponents had the lowest combined winning percentage gets the earlier pick.
Can a playoff team pick ahead of a non-playoff team?
Not in its own slot. Every non-playoff team picks ahead of every playoff team, regardless of record, unless picks have been traded.
