Four Playoff Teams Picking Before Patriots? NFL Must Change Draft Order Rules

You'll have to forgive the quick rant, but I was doing research for an NFL Draft article I'm putting together and this whole thing started eating at me.

I knew the Patriots had the 24th pick in the draft. I knew there were playoff teams that were picking ahead of them.

But for some reason, seeing it in print tonight made me crazy.

The NFL must change how they determine the draft order.

I can deal with the Patriots not making the playoffs even though they had an 11-5 record. I can deal with the Chargers being in the playoffs despite finishing three games behind the Patriots in the standings.

I’m OK with this.

I enjoy the divisional format. I think it makes the NFL more exciting.

Look, when only two eleven win teams miss the playoffs in over twenty years, I’m not jumping to make a new rule to prevent it from happening again.

Plus, it gives us all something to complain about. Were it not for the NFL’s playoff rules, people in Boston would have to complain about the Celtics’ six losses or the fact that the Bruins’ winning streak just ended.

God forbid.

There’s no way the Patriots should be picking after the Chargers, Cardinals, Eagles, and Vikings.

The Patriots will pick 24th in the 2009 NFL draft. This is beyond stupid.

Four teams who are presumably good enough to make the playoffs get to take better players before the Patriots, who are presumably not good enough to make the playoffs.

The NFL draft should help the teams that don’t make the playoffs before they help the ones that do. The NFL needs to change this rule.

Non-playoff teams should have the first 20 picks based on record. Teams that lose in the wild card round should have the next four picks based on regular season record. Teams that lose in the divisional round should have the next four picks, and so on.

The better you do in the previous season, the lower you should draft.

Or am I wrong here?

Sean Crowe covers the New England Patriots for Examiner.com and writes a bi-weekly column for Sports-Central.org.

He is a Senior Writer and an NFL Community Leader at Bleacher Report. You can email him at [e-mail]. His archive can be found here.