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Possible waiver change would eliminate Pats' current situation

Email|Link|Comments (9) Posted by Mike Reiss, Globe Staff May 19, 2009 11:15 PM

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The NFL spring meeting wraps up on Wednesday, and one area owners are expected to address is the waiver process in the offseason.

The Patriots' current situation highlights how a possible change could impact teams.

As it currently stands, teams are granted priority on offseason waiver claims if they have a worse record from the previous year than another team that claims the same player.

For example, if the Patriots (11-5) and Chargers (8-8) both claimed the same player on waivers this offseason, the Chargers would get the player's rights, even though the Chargers made the playoffs and the Patriots didn't.

Owners will consider changing that under a new rule proposal.

The proposal under consideration would have the offseason waiver priority factor in playoff berths, basing it off first-round draft order.

For the first time starting in 2010, the 12 teams which make the playoffs will draft 21-32. The non-playoff teams draft 1-20 based on record. First-round draft order used to be solely based on record.

While it is a minor rule in scope, the Patriots have utilized the waiver wire to find productive players. Offensive tackle Mark LeVoir is the lone player on the current roster who was claimed on waivers.

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9 comments so far...

Actually the Patriots lucked out last year. They had gotten San Diego's second rounder. San Diego made the playoffs at 8-8, but their pick was the 15th pick of the second round. If playoff teams picked last the Pats would have gotten the 21st pick.

Posted by PaulK May 19, 09 11:47 PM

Don't bet your last dollar on the current Commissioner doing anything that would benefit the Patriots for the upcoming waiver period.As a fan of the Patriots I'm prepared for the league to change the rule in question but it will only be changed after the season starts so that the Patriots can't gain an advantage of any kind.There is no way that any team who was in the Playoffs should have drafted ahead of a non playoff team,but it happened !because the team in question was the Patriots.This Commissioner should have corrected the draft order like he changed the TV schedule for the Jets and just recently he changed the schedule to benefit the Ny team again...Keep Cheating for your former bosses Goodsmell.

Posted by Sportsbozo May 20, 09 03:42 AM

I like it but they should go farther and do the same thing for the draft order. No way should a playoff team pick ahead of a non-playoff team the way SD picked before the Pats last year.

Posted by foozeball May 20, 09 07:53 AM

Sportsbozo.....come on. Goodell doesn't make the rules. The owners vote on the rules, and unless they have a crystal ball (which, with their money...they might) there was no way they knew how the season was going to turn out. They didn't intentionally put the pats lower...that's just the way it happened, unfortunately.

Posted by Rob in Central MA May 20, 09 08:35 AM

Comment #2,

I'm a die hard patriots fan and I've never seen, read or heard any favoritism of Goodell towards the NY Jets. I'm just glad the league is fixing things that logically make sense.

Posted by Sean Gildea May 20, 09 09:03 AM

With the Patriots almost certain to make the playoffs every year, for the foreseeable future, this rule shouldn't affect them too much.

Mike, is the new draft order of all non-playoff teams picking before playoff teams, applicable only to the first round or is it for every round? The next to last paragraph of this post seems to suggest that it will apply only to the first round. Please clarify.

Posted by Sandeep from VA May 20, 09 09:28 AM

It sounds to me like it's a fix to the wrong part of the problem. The main issue remains that an 8-8 team should simply not make the playoffs if an 11-5 team doesn't. If teams made the playoffs based on their record instead of division leads then everything would fall in place, including the draft.

The very fact that there's an explicitly different draft order for playoffs teams vs the rest clearly shows that something's out of whack.

Posted by Meh May 20, 09 09:59 AM

Show me a sport where the division champ doesn't get into the playoffs.

Posted by Ghost of Lombardi May 20, 09 01:43 PM

I have a crystal ball (ok, it's a big glass marble) and it says the Patriots are going to the playoffs this year so they're in the back of the waiver line. The marble is more than enough for some of those psychic calls.

Posted by PaulK May 20, 09 05:40 PM

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Mike Reiss, Christopher L. Gasper and the rest of the Globe team provide regular updates –and a behind-the-scenes look– on the daily happenings of the Patriots.

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