Every year, the best college football players in the country are scouted, vetted, rigorously tested and eventually ‘picked’ by NFL teams looking to add to their roster and find the league’s newest stars. The first-ever NFL draft came in 1936, but the process looks very different now. In modern-day, the draft involves the league’s 32 teams and features seven rounds of draft selections over a 3-day event held in a different city each year. Each of the 32 teams receive one pick per-round. Crucially, the order of selection is then determined by the reverse order of finish, from the previous season. Essentially, the side that finishes bottom of the NFL (with the least wins) is given the first overall pick and thus the opportunity to select the best prospect available. On the opposite end of the draft board lies the team that finished top of the NFL (the Super Bowl Champions) who pick 32nd. Unless picks are traded, the order remains the same for all seven rounds, with each team being given a time-limit of 10 minutes to make their pick once they are ‘on the clock’. If a team doesn’t make their selection on time: they forfeit the pick.
The draft order is one of the NFL’s most endearing features; it aims to keep the league competitive and fair for all teams involved. Teams, however, are able to trade their picks with each other. They can trade players and/or future picks, but it’s up to team executives - led by the General Manager (GM) - to be nifty negotiators and dauntless drafters. If a GM performs poorly in the draft, their position with the team will almost certainly be under threat. While the players selected in the higher rounds are expected to be the best by team executives, media and fans; it doesn’t always work out that way. Every year, teams find under-the-radar stars in the later rounds - giving them elite talent on the cheap, as rookie contracts are generally standardised to a player’s draft position. Teams have an array of scouting departments, based all around the United States, to ensure that they have done their due diligence on a sea of college players. The annual NFL Combine gives teams an extra opportunity to evaluate the top-tier (invited) prospects in a series of workouts, drills and mental assessments before they make their picks.
There are many success stories of players being drafted late and becoming superstars. The 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft was a 6’4 quarterback out of the University of Michigan. His scouting report: ‘Poor build’, ‘Unathletic’ and ‘Lacks a really strong arm’. Seven Super Bowl rings; five Super Bowl MVP awards and fourteen Pro Bowl selections later and Tom Brady has undoubtedly proven those reports wrong - becoming the undisputed GOAT. Players feeling slighted by their draft position just have to look at Brady to feel reassured, but the odds are stacked against them.
Whilst there are gems left on the board in the lower rounds, players projected to be first-round talent are often ready-made superstars. First-round picks, to most NFL executives, are high-ticket items and rightly so. These rising-stars offer hope to underperforming teams; their play, brand and leadership can be pivotal factors in altering the entire fortunes of an organisation and even a city. As a result, when underperforming, some teams have been known to embrace the bad - referred to as ‘tanking’. Team executives will make the decision to sacrifice the present season for the future - in the hopes of securing a generational talent. A prime example of this came back in 2021, when ‘Tank for Trevor’ became the slogan for many Jacksonville Jaguars fans. At the time, Trevor Lawrence was slated to be the next Peyton Manning - something the team were in desperate need of following their 1-15 season in 2020.
Nowadays, the draft is a spectacle like no other. In 2017, the NFL decided to end the draft’s long-term stay in New York City and allow it to become a true event held in different cities each year. So far, they have been held in Philadelphia, Arlington, Nashville, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Kansas City and most recently Detroit, Michigan - which was record-breaking in almost every sense. With 775,000 fans, the 2024 NFL Draft smashed the previous attendance record from the 2019 NFL Draft of 600,000 - not to mention the additional 12.1 million viewers who tuned in to watch the live broadcast of the first round, as dream’s became reality for 257 college prospects.
