The Falcons will hold the No. 17 overall pick in the first round of this year’s NFL draft.
The Falcons finished the season with an 8-8 record after Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Saints. The tiebreaker for the order of the first 20 picks of the draft is strength of schedule among the non-playoff teams.
The Bills and Colts finished 8-8 with a better strength of schedule than the Falcons and so will pick behind them. The Raiders and Rams lost their games on Sunday to drop to 7-9.
The Falcons also have draft picks in rounds two, three, four and seven. The league took away their fifth-round pick as a penalty for piping artificial crowd noise into the Georgia Dome during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The Falcons traded the sixth-round pick to the Titans in September in exchange for guard Andy Levitre.
>> Levitre's penalty costs Falcons in finale
The playoff teams will select Nos. 21-32 in the draft, with the order determined by postseason results.
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