I'm sorry to fans who paid money to see the Bucs game. We lost. But I'm thankful that Matt Bryant didn't hook or slice one last second field goal. It was a pretty costly non-miss in a meaningless game. So Matt Bryant, Thanks!
How much did one field goal affect the draft? The win by Atlanta cost them about six spots in the draft, every round. They would have been about 8th and instead dropped to 14th. And it gave their division rival an improvement of about six spots in every round. They would have been around 10th instead of 5th. There would have been a coin flip.
Lets just say that on day 1 and day 2 of the draft, three rounds, that better position will have an impact. After that I suppose it doesn't matter much. But thats three picks, for presumably starting caliber players, where the Bucs will have an early round pick and the Falcons will have a midround pick instead of the other way around. I think it's significant even with the inconsistent results that the Bucs or any team will have.
The Bucs didn't tank, but thankfully they lost. And that one made kick had a pretty significant impact on the draft for both teams.
