Winless Lions still holding onto No. 1 slot in 2022 NFL draft
If the season ended today, the Detroit Lions would still hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft. There’s no change in that status after the Lions remained the NFL’s only winless team in Sunday’s 28-19 loss to the Rams in Week 7.
The competition waiting to pounce on the top spot if the Lions start to win is really heating up, however. Two AFC teams, the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans, dropped to 1-6 with losses on Sunday. Both Miami and Houston won games in Week 1 and have not tasted victory since, and both have worse overall point differentials (points scored vs. points allowed) than Detroit. That’s also true of the 1-5 New York Jets, who have already had their bye week.
Detroit has a more difficult strength of schedule than any of the one-win teams, a group that also includes the Jacksonville Jaguars. In fact, only the 3-4 Kansas City Chiefs have played a more difficult schedule (opposing W-L record) than Detroit. With no head-to-head games, the strength of the schedule is the tie-breaker and the Lions would lose out in case of identical records to all of them, for now.
The top 10 slots, through Sunday’s games:
Lions
Dolphins (traded to Eagles)
Texans
Jets
Jaguars
Eagles
Giants
Football Team
Seahawks (traded to Jets)
49ers (traded to Dolphins)
As for the Lions’ other first-round pick, Sunday’s loss didn’t exactly help there. The Rams win over the Lions pushed their pick, traded to Detroit in the Matthew Stafford deal, to No. 28 overall.
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NFL draft prospects for the Lions to know in CFB Week 8
