2022 NFL Draft Order: Cowboys currently hold the 29th pick in the first round

Are we talking Cowboys draft? Sort of.

We’re going to grant you your objections from the start – the position the Dallas Cowboys currently hold in the 2022 NFL Draft is totally meaningless. Unless you are one of the teams that didn’t make the playoffs, your draft order can change, sometimes dramatically, over the course of the playoffs. It is every Cowboys fans’ fervent hope that Dallas will select 32nd overall when the draft rolls around.

Still, let’s take a look at the draft order if for no other reason than to see where all those picks gathered by other NFC East teams via trade will fall.

1) Jacksonville Jaguars
2) Detroit Lions
3) Houston Texans
4) New York Jets
5) New York Giants
6) Carolina Panthers
7) Chicago Bears (traded to N.Y. Giants)
8) Atlanta Falcons
9) Denver Broncos
10) Seattle Seahawks (traded to N.Y. Jets)
11) Washington Football Team
12) Minnesota Vikings
13) Cleveland Browns
14) Baltimore Ravens
15) Miami Dolphins (traded to Philadelphia)
16) Indianapolis Colts (traded to Philadelphia)
17) Los Angeles Chargers
18) New Orleans Saints

Playoff teams

19) Philadelphia Eagles
20) Pittsburgh Steelers
21) Cincinnati Bengals
22) New England Patriots
23) San Francisco 49ers (traded to Miami)
24) Las Vegas Raiders
25) Buffalo Bills
26) Arizona Cardinals
27) Tennessee Titans
28) Los Angeles Rams (traded to Detroit)
29) Dallas Cowboys
30) Kansas City Chiefs
31) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
32) Green Bay Packers

The Cowboys are currently slotted 29th in the bunch of 12-5 teams. Green Bay and Tampa Bay are the only two teams to go 13-4 on the season. As noted, the Cowboys position can change based on playoff performance. The procedures for slotting draft picks for the playoff teams are listed at the bottom of this article.

As for our NFC compatriots, the New York Giants will have the most first-round draft capital as they currently hold the #5 pick, which is their own, and they get the #7 pick courtesy of a trade with the Chicago Bears. That is some serious firepower to try and maneuver up if they have a player in mind.

The Washington soon-to-not-be Football Team hold the #11 overall pick.

And our good friends, the Philadelphia Eagles, will hold three picks in the first round. The Carson Wentz/Indianapolis Colts meltdown versus the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday means that pick rises in value and becomes a non-playoff-team pick. That gives the Eagles the #15 pick courtesy of the Miami Dolphins, and the #16 pick courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts. Philadelphia also holds their own pick that will be determined with their playoff fate.

Those picks for the Eagles are not quite as good as it looked like they might be earlier in the season when it appeared they could have three picks in the Top 15 or so. But the Dolphins good second half to the season, and the Eagles own charge to the playoffs lessened their value. Still, three first-round picks gives them a lot of flexibility.

Here is how the playoff teams’ picks are determined.

The draft order is determined by the following procedures:

(A) The winner of the Super Bowl game selects last and the loser selects next-to-last in all rounds, regardless of the record of the clubs in the regular season.

(B) The losers of the Conference Championship games select 29th and 30th in all rounds, according to the reverse order of their standing.

(C) The losers of the Divisional Playoffs select 25th through 28th in all rounds, according to the reverse order of their standing.

(D) The losers of the Wild Card games select 19th through 24th in all rounds, according to the reverse order of their standing.

(E) Clubs not participating in the playoffs select in the first through 18th positions in all rounds, according to the reverse order of their standing.

If, after all the foregoing procedures have been applied, ties still exist in any grouping except (A) above, such ties shall be broken by figuring the aggregate won-lost-tied percentage of each involved club’s regular season opponents and awarding preferential selection order to the club which faced the schedule of teams with the lowest aggregate won-lost-tied percentage.

If ties still exist between teams in the same division or the same conference, the divisional or conference tie-breaking method is used, whichever is applicable.

If ties still exist, the procedures for breaking ties for teams of different conferences shall be applied.

Clubs involved in two-club ties will alternate positions from round-to-round. In ties that involve three or more clubs, the club at the top of a tied segment in a given round will move to the bottom of the segment for the next round, while all other clubs in the segment move up one position. This rotation continues throughout the Draft.