Raiders, Falcons, Chiefs to decide draft order with coin flip
Associated Press
Updated: December 31, 2007, 5:21 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Atlanta, Kansas City and Oakland are involved in a complicated coin flip scenario to decide the third, fourth and fifth picks in the NFL draft in April.
The first pick will go to Miami (1-15) and the second to St. Louis (3-13).
Then come the Falcons, Raiders and Chiefs, teams that finished 4-12 and tied in the strength of schedule factor. The New York Jets, who also had a 4-12 record, will pick sixth because they played a stronger schedule, one of the determining factors in the draft order.
The Falcons, Chiefs and Raiders all had the same strength of schedule -- they played teams that finished with a winning percentage of .516 compared to .523 for Jets' opponents.
Because the Chiefs finished third in the AFC West with a better record in common games over the Raiders, Oakland will draft ahead of them.
So the Falcons and Raiders will flip a coin for the third spot. If Atlanta wins, it will pick third followed by Oakland and Kansas City. If Oakland wins the toss, then the Chiefs and Falcons will flip for the fourth spot.
New England, which finished the regular season 16-0, will pick seventh, having obtained the pick from San Francisco during last April's draft. The Patriots, however, will not have their own pick toward the end of the first because it was taken away by commissioner Roger Goodell after they were caught taping the Jets' signals in the opening game of the season.
The draft will run from April 26-27.
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