Tampa Bay Buccaneers own first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft

With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, the Bucs (2-14) now own the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 National Football League Draft, which will be held on April 30-May 2 at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

With that pick, Tampa has the option of either using it or trading down.  They have a need for a franchise quarterback, but this year's current crop at the position, headlined by Oregon's Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, Florida State's Jameis Winston, and UCLA's Brett Hundley, all have their various flaws.

The tentative order of the first round was announced today by the NFL.

The NFL Draft's first round will be held on Thursday, April 30. The second and third rounds are set for Friday, May 1. Rounds four through seven will be held on Saturday, May 2.

Below is the tentative order of the first round of the 2015 draft, subject to the results of the playoffs. The draft order is determined by the following procedures:

(A)       The Super Bowl champion will select last and the loser of the Super Bowl next-to-last in all rounds, regardless of the record of such participating clubs in the regular season.

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

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

(D)       The losers of the Wild Card games shall select in the 21st through 24th positions in all rounds, according to the reverse order of their standing.

(E)       Clubs not participating in the playoffs shall select in the first through 20th 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, the divisional or conference tie-breaking method, if applicable, shall be applied.  If neither the divisional nor the conference tie-breaking methods are applicable, ties shall be broken by a coin flip.

The tie between Kansas City and San Diego was broken by the division tie-breaker. Since Kansas City defeated San Diego twice in head-to-head competition, San Diego is given priority in the Draft order and will select in the 17th position, with Kansas City in the 18th position.

Though Denver and Seattle have the same strength-of-schedule, neither the divisional nor the conference tie-breaker applies; therefore, if the teams are still tied after the playoffs, their positions will be determined by a coin flip.

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.

Here is the known draft order thus far:

1. Tampa Bay (2-14)
2. Tennessee (2-14)
3. Jacksonville (3-13)
4. Oakland (3-13)
5. Washington (4-12)
6. N.Y. Jets (4-12)
7. Chicago (5-11)
8. Atlanta (6-10)
9. N.Y. Giants (6-10)
10. St. Louis (6-10)
11. Minnesota (7-9)
12. Cleveland (7-9)
13. New Orleans (7-9)
14. Miami (8-8)
15. San Francisco (8-8)
16. Houston (9-7)
17 Kansas City (9-7)
18. San Diego (9-7)
19. Cleveland (from Buffalo 9-7)
20. Philadelphia (10-6).

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services