It isn’t enough for the New Orleans Saints to start the year at 0-3. Starting Kellen Moore’s tenure as head coach without a win through three weeks hasn’t been enough for the Saints to take an early lead in possession of the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. Five other teams are also 0-3, leading to a six-way tie for the first pick in next year’s draft. That pushes the light at the end of the tunnel just a little further away.
The experts at Tankathon crunched the numbers, and they found that the first tiebreaker (strength of schedule, or the combined win-loss records of each team’s opponents) puts the Saints at No. 2, with the New York Jets at No. 1. For now. Here’s how the top 10 picks shake out, with Tankathon’s calculated SOS in parentheses:
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0-3 New Orleans Saints (.471)
0-3 Miami Dolphins (.529)
0-3 Tennessee Titans (.529)
0-3 New York Giants (.569)
0-3 Houston Texans (.629)
1-2 New England Patriots (.353)
1-2 Las Vegas Raiders (.471)
1-2 Cleveland Browns (.490)
1-2 Denver Broncos (.490)
If you’re curious, here’s what the NFL rulebook says about tiebreaking procedures:
If the teams have the same strength of schedule, division or conference tiebreakers are applied. If the divisional or conference tiebreakers are not applicable, or ties still exist between teams of different conferences, ties will be broken the following tie-breaking method:
We have a long way to go between now and next April. The Saints could turn things around and shift our focus from draft order to playoff seeding. But that doesn’t feel very likely after such a rough start, and after an ugly 31-point loss last Sunday. We’ll keep track of their draft positioning until they give us a reason not to.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: 2026 NFL draft: Saints don’t own first overall pick despite 0-3 start