2012 NFL Draft Order: Overachieving Teams Who'll Pay on Draft Day

Michael DixonFeb 7, 2012

Being average is the worst thing that you can do in professional football, and these teams were decidedly average. They were not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to rely on an instant impact first-round pick.

These teams would have all been much better this year had a few games gone the other way. An extra few wins and they're in the playoffs. An extra few losses and they're in a position to significantly improve in April. As it is, they are in NFL purgatory.

Miami Dolphins

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For most of the first half of the 2011 regular season, the Dolphins looked like a genuine threat to earn the No. 1 pick. Then, a series of unfortunate mishaps took place: The Dolphins started winning games.

They didn't win anywhere near enough to make the playoffs, but the wins combined with players like Matt Barkley and Landry Jones staying in school worked to take the Dolphins right out of the mix for a quarterback, which is what this franchise needs.

Matt Moore is not going to be a long-term answer at the quarterback position. If you give NFL defensive coordinators a full offseason to learn his tendencies, Moore will not be anywhere near as effective.

To guarantee Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III, the Dolphins will have to move into the No. 2 spot. If you look at the value chart on Walter's Football, you will see that they will have to give up nearly their entire draft to get that high.

San Diego Chargers

Things looked so promising for the Chargers. They were 4-7, Norv Turner had one foot out the door and one of the more talented teams in the league was looking at a top-10 pick.

Then things went crazy—they finished 4-1, Turner kept his job and the Chargers fell all the way down to the No. 18 pick. Being in position to draft Matt Kalil was always a pipe dream, but tackles like Riley Reiff and Jonathan Martin were always realistic, as was guard David DeCastro.

Philip Rivers wasn't sacked too often, but his razor-thin line didn't protect him well. He was forced to throw the ball early, which led to an absurdly high amount of turnovers.

That is something the Chargers will have to improve on and the draft would have been a golden opportunity to do that. As it is, they will have to make a trade or hope for one of the studs to go on a serious drop.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans are a team that could use a lot of help. They were 31st in the league at rushing the ball, so some help up front would serve them well. On the other side of the ball, the Titans were 24th in rushing defense, so some help up the middle would serve them well.

In addition to all of that, a true big-play receiver would do the Titans incredibly well. But a 9-7 season led to the No. 20 pick, so they will need some players to fall if the Titans are going to land a real instant-impact player.

In a division with a deep Houston Texans team, it's hard to imagine the Titans competing without getting noticeably better on the run (offense and defense), as well as in the vertical game. A surprisingly good season that didn't result in a playoff bid is going to make that hard to do.

2012 NFL Draft Order, per Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk

1. Indianapolis Colts

2. St. Louis Rams

3. Minnesota Vikings

4. Cleveland Browns

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

6. Washington Redskins

7. Jacksonville Jaguars

8/9. Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers

10. Buffalo Bills

11/12. Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks

13. Arizona Cardinals