Apr 27

Apr 27 How does the NFL draft work? A Guide to the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft Explained: A Simple Guide to the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft is a process every potential professional American football player must go through before signing with an NFL franchise.

It’s a system used within most American professional sports where professional teams take turns choosing new players to add to their squad.

A Draft process for new prospects entering the NFL is favoured for two main reasons:

The Well-being of the Athlete

Firstly, the draft system ensures young athletes earn an education and time for their bodies to mature before turning professional. Every athlete applying to play in the NFL must have enrolled in college for at least three seasons before playing professionally.

The Draft helps Maintain Balance

Secondly, the Draft brings a sense of equality to the sport. It prevents a free-for-all of teams attempting to sign the best prospects without restriction, inevitably leading to a sustained disparity among teams.

Essentially, the draft limits the rich-get-richer scenario we often see in other sports.

The NFL Draft has exploded in viewing figures and general popularity in the 21st Century. In 2020, the draft reached a total of more than 55 million viewers over the three-day event, according to an NFL press release.

So in more detail, what is the NFL Draft?

How the NFL Draft Works

The process is simple enough.

Every year, college seniors with ambitions to play in the NFL apply for entry into the draft pool.

Additionally, underclassmen, with at least three years of college experience (as a student, not necessarily playing football), may also apply for early entry into the draft.

The draft order is determined by every team’s record from the previous season. In order to maintain a sense of parity, the worst team from the regular season gets the first pick in the upcoming draft.

That team will select an eligible player from the pool of prospects as the first pick of the draft, then the second-worst team will select, and so on.

For example in 2020, the Jacksonville Jaguars had the worst record in the league, 1-15, and so they pick first in the 2021 draft. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, so they chose a player last in the first round, pick 32.

Did You Know?
The inaugural NFL Draft took place in 1936. Proposed by future NFL Commissioner Bert Bell, the first draft had nine rounds, however, only nine teams played in the league at the time!
The first-ever pick in NFL draft history - Jay Berwanger, Running Back selected by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Once every team has picked a player, the draft moves into the second round where the same process applies.

The Top 10 Draft moments of All Time

The current iteration of the draft has seven rounds of selections. However, every year the league also awards a total of 32 additional “compensatory picks” to teams in the draft.

The extra picks range from a team being awarded another third-round pick to additional seventh-round picks, depending on the value of the team’s losses and gains from the previous year’s free-agency transactions.

Compensatory picks take place at the back end of each round they apply, after the regular round of selections based on the team’s records.

The draft format has changed over the years due to the growth of the league. However, the total number of selections in NFL drafts is 256 over seven rounds as it is currently designed.

NFL Draft Timing & Trades:

Currently, when a team is “on the clock”, they have ten minutes to make their selection in the first round.

Then seven minutes in the second round, five minutes in the third through sixth rounds, and finally four minutes per selection in the seventh round. This timing has been in place since 2008.

Did You Know?
The 2007 NFL Draft is famous for having the longest first round in league history. It took six hours and eight minutes to complete as teams had 15 minutes to make their selections. The time teams have to make selections was shortened the next year.

The timing element of picks is important as there is an opportunity to make trades throughout the draft while “on the clock”.

One of the more dramatic elements of the event is teams can trade their own draft picks to another team in return for players or different draft picks.

Teams can trade any of their picks they want up to three years in advance of a given draft.

Trades spark most of the drama around NFL drafts.

It’s an opportunity for teams originally selecting at the back end of a round to trade up and select a player they covet. Or a team may feel they can get a player they are targeting with a later pick, so they seek to trade back if they can find a willing trade partner who meets their compensation demands.

The strength in quality and depth of that year’s prospect pool and individual team needs for the roster has a direct impact on team strategy in the draft.

Did You Know?
The New Orleans Saints traded all of their draft picks to the Washington Football Team to move up to the No.5 spot in the 1999 NFL Draft.
The Saints selected running back Ricky Williams, while Washington received all seven of the Saints picks from that year’s draft AND first and third-round picks for the 2000 Draft the next year.

Rookie Salaries in the NFL

Drafted players are paid salaries by the teams in line with the position in which they were drafted. High first-round picks will get paid the most, and low-round picks will get paid the least.

Essentially, draft picks are paid on a scale. The “Rookie Wage Scale” was overhauled in 2011 to limit the salary demands draft picks could make as a rookie straight out of college.

Salary demands by first-round picks soared in the late 2000s, resulting in the team’s lobbying for a restructuring of the league rules on rookie contracts.

Did You know?
Quarterback Sam Bradford signed a six-year, $78 million deal after the St Louis Rams selected him first overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, the last draft prior to the new rookie salary scale. The most lucrative rookie contract in NFL history.

Pre-Draft Process

The NFL Scouting Combine is a six-day assessment of prospects’ skills that takes place annually prior to the draft in one location.

College football payers who receive an invite to the event perform extensive physical and mental tests in front of NFL coaches and scouts.

It’s an opportunity for teams to also interview prospects they might target in the draft one-on-one.

However, the 2021 live event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic favouring online interviews and an expansion of individual colleges’ pro days.

Did You Know?
The NFL Scouting Combine was named after three rival centralized scouting camps merged in 1985 to cut down costs of running extra camps. The NFL Scouting Combine has been held annually in Indianapolis since 1987.

“College Pro Days” also give prospects an opportunity to perform tests in front of scouts similar to what players go through at the Combine, but on their own turf.

Players often workout to a script created by themselves and their college coaches that will best show off the player’s skills.

They also may take requests from professional scouts and coaches who want to see prospects run through plays from their own playbook to assess scheme fit.

The Venue of the NFL Draft

From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s the location of the draft was changeable, shared among cities with NFL franchises. Then from 1965 to 2014, the NFL draft was located exclusively in New York City.

However, as the event became more popular and viewing figures soared, the league opened the draft location to a bidding process. In 2015, Chicago hosted the first draft outside of New York for 49 years and hosted again in 2016.

Philadelphia, Dallas, and Nashville have also hosted the event since the introduction of the bidding process with future locations already decided up until 2023, where it will be held in Kansas City, Missouri.