I know I should just wait a day for this (though the Denver/SD game won't affect what I write below), but I'm wanting to find a bright spot from the loss today. So, I took a look at the perennial "bright spot" for losing teams: the draft order.
With only one game to go, there are 8 teams guaranteed to have worse records than us (5-10 or worse), and 12 guaranteed to have better records (9-6 or better). There are 12 teams within one game of us. So, that means we'll end up picking somewhere betwen 9th and 20th. Actually, I expect that the next tiebreaker after record (strength of schedule) is already determined enough that we can't get all those spots. Considering our division's record, I'm guessing our SoS is pretty high, meaning we'd be toward the later draft picks in any tiebreaker.
If we win next week, there could be at most 8 teams at 8-8 with us. That means we'd end up picking between 13 and 20 (again, the actual range is probably narrower due to strength of schedule).
If we lose next week, there could be at most 9 teams at 7-9 with us. That means we'd end up picking between 9 and 17.
Actually, I'm surprised at the range of possible places we could end up - I thought it would be a lot narrower. And, I was hoping our draft position would be better - doing this analysis didn't help to ease the loss today...
With only one game to go, there are 8 teams guaranteed to have worse records than us (5-10 or worse), and 12 guaranteed to have better records (9-6 or better). There are 12 teams within one game of us. So, that means we'll end up picking somewhere betwen 9th and 20th. Actually, I expect that the next tiebreaker after record (strength of schedule) is already determined enough that we can't get all those spots. Considering our division's record, I'm guessing our SoS is pretty high, meaning we'd be toward the later draft picks in any tiebreaker.
If we win next week, there could be at most 8 teams at 8-8 with us. That means we'd end up picking between 13 and 20 (again, the actual range is probably narrower due to strength of schedule).
If we lose next week, there could be at most 9 teams at 7-9 with us. That means we'd end up picking between 9 and 17.
Actually, I'm surprised at the range of possible places we could end up - I thought it would be a lot narrower. And, I was hoping our draft position would be better - doing this analysis didn't help to ease the loss today...