I know there are some fans who have opined that it would have been better for the Cardinals to lose to the Lions, the Bears, and the 49ers to end at 4-12 in order to bolster their draft position. Personally, I think the win was a good thing, and I'm glad the losing streak is over. Now the Cardinals can go ahead and lose to the Bears and 49ers to end at 5-11 without a 12 game losing streak.

Since we have that out of the way, I thought I'd look at draft positions currently, the remaining schedule for teams currently picking ahead of us, and estimate our final draft position. Through 15 weeks, here is the current draft position, with current strength of schedule, and remaining games (Bold meaning I think they win that game):

1. Kansas City 2-12 (.469 SOS) vs IND @ DEN

2. Jacksonville 2-12 (.541) vs NE @TEN

3. Oakland 4-10 (.469) @CAR @SD

4. Philadelphia 4-10 (.505) vs WAS @NYG

5. Detroit 4-10 (.546) vs ATL vs CHI

6. San Diego 5-9 (.474) @ NYJ vs OAK

7. Cleveland 5-9 (.480) @DEN @PIT

8. Buffalo 5-9 (.500) @MIA vs NYJ

9. Tennessee 5-9 (.526) @GB vs JAX

10. Carolina 5-9 (.536) vs OAK @NO

11. Arizona 5-9 (.543) vs CHI @SF

Based on the remaining schedules, here is how I see the draft order playing out and anticipated final record:

1. Kansas City (2-14)

2. Jacksonville (2-14)

3-5 (in some order depending on final SOS, all at 4-12) Philadelphia, Detroit, and Oakland; I would guess Oakland, Philadelphia, then Detroit.

6-7 Cleveland and Arizona (both at 5-11), Cleveland looks like it will end up with the easier SOS giving them the pick over AZ

8-11 all at 6-10 Tennessee, Carolina, Buffalo, San Diego (not sure how final SOS will play out here, all are close so I'm not going to make guesses).

End result is that the Cardinals most likely end up picking 7th in the draft. If they had won against Detroit, they basically would be flip-flopping with Detroit in draft position, meaning they would likely end up picking 5th.

Now, in my opinion, the difference between picking 5th and 7th is minimal. The Cardinals have several needs, again in my opinion, the biggest needs are ordered like this: LT, SILB, RG, and QB. I'm hoping that one of the following can happen in the draft:

1. Pick a LT if they are at the top of their draft board, and I think Joeckel and Lewan will both be near the top of the Cardinals draft board, and one of the 2 will still be available.

2. Pick Manti Teo if he is still on the board, filling the SILB need.

3. Trade back and gain an additional 2nd round pick.

In the end, I don't think the win hurt the Cardinals as much as some people might think, and that there will be an impact player available when they pick just 2 spots lower than they would have in the alternate universe where they lost to Detroit and end up 4-12.

Thoughts?