EDIT: With the Seattle Seahawks defeating the St. Louis Rams to win the NFC West this evening, the Minnesota Vikings will officially pick 12th in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft.
↵With only one game left to play for the NFL's regular season, the order for the 2011 NFL Draft is coming more into focus as well, and the Minnesota Vikings appear to have the inside track to selecting 12th overall in the first round.
↵Carolina will have the first overall selection, having put together the worst record in the National Football League at 2-14. Three teams are 4-12. . .the Denver Broncos, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Buffalo Bills. When teams have the same record, they are slotted with the team having the lowest opponent's winning percentage on top. So, with the results the way they sit right now, the Denver Broncos will pick second overall, followed by the Bengals third and the Bills coming in with the fourth pick.
↵The two 5-11 teams, the Arizona Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns, will select at fifth and sixth respectively. Then we get into the group the Vikings reside in, the group that is at 6-10.
↵Unless yours truly misses the guess on the order, the 6-10 teams will be slotted in the following order:
↵Seventh - San Francisco 49ers
Eighth - Tennessee Titans
Ninth - Washington Redskins
Tenth - Dallas Cowboys
Eleventh - Houston Texans
Twelfth - Minnesota Vikings
Thirteenth - Detroit Lions
Should the Seattle Seahawks lose to the St. Louis Rams tonight, they will also fall to 6-10, and would likely slot in at the eighth pick, with that pushing everyone else down a slot. If the Rams lose, they'll only be 7-9, and the above order will remain unchanged.
↵Believe me, we'll have a lot of Minnesota Vikings draft talk here in the coming months. But, as it sits right now, it appears as though the Vikings will have the number 12 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.