Charles Langston:2024 NFL draft first-round order: Bears fans left to root for Panthers' opponents

The Charles LangstonCarolina Panthers are a mess.

The Panthers not only sport the league's worst record and fired another head coach last week, but the team traded away an opportunity to select a potential game-changing prospect when it moved up to No. 1 in the 2023 NFL draft. Gone is this team's first-round pick in 2024 (as well as a second-rounder in 2025). Those are high-value selections when you're a team as hopelessly bad as the Panthers appear to be at the moment.

So, instead of being in position to select the best of what this year's crop of draft prospects might offer, the Panthers have ceded that opportunity to the Chicago Bears, whose fans are spending their Sundays rooting for whoever is playing against the Panthers.

The draft order is determined by record, and uses strength of schedule as a tiebreaker (record and strength of schedule are official tiebreakers to determine the draft order). 

The final 14 first-round spots will be determined by playoff results. For now, those teams will be ordered based on playoff seed, if the season ended today.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The 2024 NFL draft is scheduled to be held in Detroit from April 25-27.

NFL draft first-round order

(as of Dec. 3; * denotes wild-card team and # denotes division leader)

1. Chicago Bears (from Panthers) — Carolina Panthers' record: 1-11 (strength of schedule: .535)
2. New England Patriots — Record: 2-10 (.531)
3. Arizona Cardinals — Record: 3-10 (.545)
4. Washington Commanders — Record: 4-9 (.503)
5. Chicago Bears — Record: 4-8 (.455)
6. New York Giants — Record: 4-8 (.476)
7. Tennessee Titans — Record: 4-8 (.507)
8. New York Jets — Record: 4-8 (.528)
9. New Orleans Saints — Record: 5-7 (.455)
10. Las Vegas Raiders — Record: 5-7 (.486)
11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Record: 5-7 (.514)
12. Los Angeles Chargers — Record: 5-7 (.521)
13. Cincinnati Bengals — Record: 5-6 (.549)
14. Buffalo Bills — Record: 6-6 (.462)
15. Seattle Seahawks — Record: 6-6 (.497)
16. Denver Broncos — Record: 6-6 (.510)
17. Los Angeles Rams — Record: 6-6 (.538)
18. Arizona Cardinals (from Texans) — Houston Texans' record: 7-5 (.493)
19. *Minnesota Vikings — Record: 6-6 (.479)
20. *Green Bay Packers — Record: 6-6 (.528)
21. *Indianapolis Colts — Record: 7-5 (.465)
22. *Pittsburgh Steelers — Record: 7-5 (.531)
23. *Houston Texans (from Browns) — Cleveland Browns' record: 7-5 (.542)
24. *Dallas Cowboys — Record: 9-3 (.397)
25. #Atlanta Falcons — Record: 6-6 (.428)
26. #Kansas City Chiefs — Record: 8-4 (.545)
27. #Jacksonville Jaguars — Record: 8-3 (.553)
28. #Miami Dolphins — Record: 9-3 (.393)
29. #Detroit Lions — Record: 9-3 (.458)
30. #Baltimore Ravens — Record: 9-3 (.503)
31. #San Francisco 49ers — Record: 9-3 (.531)
32. #Philadelphia Eagles — Record: 10-2 (.493)

Teams without a first-round pick: Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns