The Tampa Bay Buccaneers own the fifth pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, the result of their 5-11 finish in 2018 and a few other changes in the overall league standings in Week 17.
The first four picks in the draft belong to Arizona, which finished 3-13, and a trio of 4-12 squad: San Francisco, the New York Jets and Oakland. All of those teams lost on Sunday to remain ahead of the Buccaneers in the draft order. Tampa Bay joins Jacksonville and the New York Giants in a tied segment of three 5-11 teams. The Buccaneers, Jaguars and Giants all lost in Week 17, as well, in last-second fashion by both the Bucs and Giants. Detroit and Buffalo also took five wins into the final weekend but prevailed in their games against Green Bay and Miami, respectively, to improve to 6-10.
That means the Buccaneers, Giants and Jaguars will rotate between the fifth and seventh spots from round to round in the 2019 draft. The first-round lineup of the three teams is determined by the only tiebreaker the NFL uses in setting its draft order: strength of schedule (SOS). The final win-loss records of every opponent each team played is combined into a single winning percentage and the team with the lower SOS wins the tiebreaker and gets the higher pick.
The Buccaneers' final SOS number for 2018 was .523. That proved to be just a bit worse than the Giants' SOS of .527. The Jaguars had a significantly higher strength of schedule, at .549.
The final 12 spots in the first-round order will be rearranged somewhat by playoff results, but here are the teams set to pick in the top 10 next spring:
Barring a trade, the Buccaneers will pick in the top five of the NFL Draft for the first time since 2015, when they landed quarterback Jameis Winston with the first-overall selection. It would be the 11th top-five pick in franchise history but just the second one that was exactly the fifth choice. Tampa Bay selected running back Cadillac Williams at number five in the 2005 draft.
