The
NFL Draft is an annual event in which the 32
NFL teams select new players from the NCAA college system. It is
the NFL's most common source of player recruitment.
Venue
The draft has taken place since 1936 and has had to move into
larger venues as the event has gained in popularity, drawing fans
from across the world.
The 2006 draft
was held at Radio City
Music Hall
, the first time this venue has hosted the gala, and
it has been held there ever since. Madison Square
Garden
had hosted the event for a number of years, but the
NFL moved it to the Javits Convention Center
in 2005 following a dispute with the Cablevision-owned arena, who were opposing a new
New York Jets/2012 Olympic Stadium
which would compete with the Garden for
events.
Tickets to the NFL Draft are free and made available to fans on a
first-come first-served basis. The tickets are distributed at the
box office the morning of the draft, one ticket per person. Long
waits in line can be expected for fans hoping to get a live glimpse
of their team's high-profile picks. Fans must arrive early in order
to attend the draft. However, those fans who stay for the duration
of Day 2 of the NFL Draft are eligible to receive free NFL Draft
Day 1 tickets for the following year which are mailed to the fans'
house.
Recent and upcoming drafts
2009 NFL Draft
2010 NFL Draft
Procedure and rules
Eligibility
The draft is the first chance teams get to conduct contract
negotiations with players who have been out of high school for two
years. Most drafted players come directly out of
NCAA programs as seniors or juniors,all players
entering the draft must at least be in their junior year, while
some players are selected from other professional leagues like the
Arena Football League. All
players who choose to enter the selected year's draft must sign an
agent prior to entering the draft. A player who is drafted but does
not sign a contract can sit out that season, which is referred to
as a "holdout", and can re-enter the draft the following year
unless they were told differently by the NFL commissioner.
Selection format
The Draft currently lasts seven rounds.
Rules for determining draft order
The draft order is determined by first generating the order for the
first round. That order is based generally on each team's regular
season record, with the exception of the two Super Bowl
contestants, who are placed at the end of the draft order.
Tiebreakers and specifics are as follows:
- Any expansion team automatically
gets the first pick; if there are two expansion teams, a coin toss
determines who picks first; the other team will pick first in the
expansion draft.
- The winners of the Super Bowl are
given the last selection, and the losers the penultimate
selection.
- Teams that made the playoffs are then ordered by how they
performed in the playoffs. The conference championship losers
receive the third and fourth to last selections. Next are the four
teams who lost in the divisional round, followed by the four teams
who lost in the wild card round. Each team is ordered within this
primary order by their regular-season record.
- Teams that did not make the playoffs are ordered by their
regular-season record.
- Remaining ties are broken by strength of schedule. For draft order,
a lower strength of schedule results in an earlier pick.
If strength of schedule does not resolve a tie, division and/or
conference tiebreakers may be used. If the tie still cannot be
broken, a coin toss at the NFL Combine
is used to determine draft order. (Note: Strength of schedule is
the combined records of a team's 16 opponents, including games
played against the team in question, and counting divisional
opponents twice. Because of this, each team's opponents' combined
wins and losses—counting a tie as a half-win, half-loss—will add up
to 256, so a team whose opponents had more combined wins has a
better strength of schedule.)
Barring any expansion teams entering the league, the first overall
draft pick goes to the team with the worst record in the previous
season.
Once the order for the first round is determined, teams with the
same record "cycle" picks in each subsequent round, regardless of
playoff status or any other factor (except that the Super Bowl
teams will always pick last in every round). For example, in the
2008 draft, Arizona, Minnesota,
Houston, and Philadelphia all finished 8-8, and picked in that
order in the first round. In the second round, the order became
Minnesota, Houston, Philadelphia, and Arizona. That cycling
continues through all seven rounds.
The draft currently takes place over two days, with rounds one and
two on Day 1 and rounds three through seven on Day 2, although
Commissioner
Roger Goodell has
suggested the possibility of a 3-day draft starting on
prime-time. The draft would takes place with
round one on Day 1, rounds two and three on Day 2, and rounds four
through seven on Day 3. Enthusiasts who stay through the end of day
2 will receive VIP passes to skip the lines and get preferred
seating to the following year's draft.
The first overall pick generally gets the richest contract, but
other contracts rely on a number of variables. While they generally
are based on the previous year's second overall pick, third
overall, etc., each player's position also is taken into account.
Quarterbacks, for example, usually command more money than
defensive linemen, which can skew those dollar figures
slightly.
Each team has its representatives attend the draft. During the
draft, one team is always "on the clock." In Round 1, teams have 10
minutes to make their choice (previously 15). The decision time
drops to 7 minutes (previously 10) in the second round and 5
minutes in Rounds 3-7. If a team doesn't make a decision within its
allotted time, the team still can submit its selection at any time
after its time is up, but the next team can pick before it, thus
possibly stealing a player the later team may have been eyeing.
This occurred in the
2003 draft, when
the
Minnesota Vikings, with the
7th overall pick, were late with their selection. The
Jacksonville Jaguars drafted
quarterback
Byron Leftwich and the
Carolina Panthers drafted
offensive tackle
Jordan Gross before
the Vikings were able to submit their selection of defensive tackle
Kevin
Williams.
Pick trades
Teams may negotiate with one another both before and during the
draft for the right to pick an additional player in a given round.
For example, a team may include draft picks in future drafts in
order to acquire a player during a trading period. Teams may also
make negotiations during the draft relinquishing the right to pick
in a given round for the right to have an additional pick in a
later round. Thus teams may have no picks or multiple picks in a
given round.
Compensatory picks
In addition to the 32 picks in each round, there are a total of 32
picks awarded at the ends of Rounds 3 through 7. These picks, known
as "compensatory picks," are awarded to teams that have lost more
qualifying free agents than they gained the previous year in free
agency. Teams that gain and lose the same number of players but
lose higher-valued players than they gain also can be awarded a
pick, but only in the seventh round, after the other compensatory
picks. Compensatory picks cannot be traded, and the placement of
the picks is determined by a proprietary formula based on the
player's salary, playing time, and postseason honors with his new
team, with salary being the primary factor. So, for example, a team
that lost a linebacker who signed for $2.5 million per year in free
agency might get a sixth-round compensatory pick, while a team that
lost a wide receiver who signed for $5 million per year might
receive a fourth-round pick.
If fewer than 32 such picks are awarded, the remaining picks are
awarded in the order in which teams would pick in a hypothetical
eighth round of the draft (These are known as "supplemental
compensatory selections").
Compensatory picks are awarded each year at the NFL annual meeting
which is held at the end of March; typically, about three or four
weeks before the draft.
Salaries
The NFL allots each team a certain amount of money from its
salary cap to sign its drafted rookies
for their first season. That amount is based on an undisclosed
formula that assigns a certain value to each pick in the draft;
thus, having more picks, or earlier picks, will increase the
allotment. In 2008 the highest allotment was about $8.22 million
for the
Kansas City Chiefs, who
had 12 picks, including two first-rounders, while the lowest was
the $1.79 million for the
Cleveland
Browns who had only five picks, and none in the first three
rounds. The exact mechanism for the rookie salary cap is set out in
the NFL's
collective
bargaining agreement (CBA) with the
National Football
League Players Association (NFLPA). (Those numbers represent
the
cap hits that each rookie's salary
may contribute, not the total amount of money paid out.)
The drafted players are paid salaries commensurate with the
position in which they were drafted. High first-round picks get
paid the most, and low-round picks get paid the least. There is a
de facto pay scale for drafted rookies. After the draft,
non-drafted rookies may sign a contract with any team in the
league. These rookie free-agents usually do not get paid as well as
drafted players, nearly all of them signing for the predetermined
rookie minimum and a small signing bonus.
Two other facets of the rookie salary cap impact the makeup of
rosters. First, the base salaries of rookie free agents do
not count towards the rookie salary cap, though certain
bonuses do. Second, if a rookie is traded, his cap allotment
remains with the team that originally drafted him, which make
trades involving rookie players relatively rare. (This rule does
not apply, however, to rookies that are waived by the teams that
drafted them.)
Teams can also agree to a contract with a draft-eligible player
before the draft itself starts. They can only do this if they have
the first overall pick, as by agreeing to terms with a player the
team has already "selected" which player they will draft. A recent
example of this would be Quarterback
Matthew Stafford and the
Detroit Lions in the 2009 NFL Draft. The
Lions, with the first overall selection in the draft, agreed to a
6-year, 78 million dollar deal with 41.7 million guaranteed with
Stafford a day before the draft officially started. By agreeing to
the deal, Stafford had already been chosen as the first overall
pick in the draft.
Forfeiture
The commissioner has the ability to forfeit picks the team is
allotted in a draft. For example, in the
2007 NFL season, the
New England Patriots were penalized for
videotaping an opponent's defensive signals.
As a result, the Patriots forfeited their first-round pick in the
2008 NFL Draft. Similarly, the
San Francisco 49ers were forced
to forfeit a fifth-round pick in the same draft for tampering with
a player under contract to the Chicago Bears, and were also forced
to swap third-round selections with the Bears (moving the 49ers
down and the Bears up six spots).
Supplemental Draft
Since 1977, the NFL has also held a Supplemental Draft to
accommodate players who did not enter the regular draft. Players
generally enter the Supplementary Draft because they missed the
filing deadline for the NFL Draft or because issues developed which
affected their eligibility (such as athletic or disciplinary
matters). The draft is scheduled to occur at some point after the
regular draft and before the start of the next season. In 2009, the
Supplemental Draft occurred on July 16.
Draft order is determined by a weighted system that is divided into
three groupings. First come the teams that had six or fewer wins
last season, followed by non-playoff teams that had more than six
wins, followed by the 12 playoff teams. In the supplemental draft,
a team is not required to use any picks. Instead, if a team wants a
player in the supplemental draft, they submit a "bid" to the
Commissioner with the round they would pick that player. If no
other team places a bid on that player at an earlier spot, the team
is awarded the player and has to give up an equivalent pick in the
following year's draft. (For example, FS
Paul Oliver was taken by the
San Diego Chargers in the fourth
round of the Supplemental Draft in 2007; thus, in the
2008 NFL Draft, the Chargers forfeited a
fourth-round pick.)
The 1985 Supplemental Draft was particularly controversial.
Bernie Kosar of the University of
Miami
earned his academic degree a year early but did not
enter the regular draft that year. Rather than finish his
eligibility at Miami, he entered into talks with his favorite team,
the Cleveland Browns. They advised Kosar to delay his professional
eligibility until after the regular draft. They then traded for the
right to choose first in the Supplemental Draft. This angered many
clubs, notably the
Minnesota
Vikings and
New York Giants, who
had expressed interest in choosing him in that season's regular
draft. Many of today's Supplemental Draft rules aim at preventing a
recurrence of this incident.
As of 2009, 38 players have been taken in the Supplemental
Draft.
Events leading up to the Draft
NFL Draft Advisory Board decisions
College football players who are considering entering the NFL Draft
but who still have eligibility to play college football can request
an expert opinion from the NFL-created Draft Advisory Board. The
Board, composed of scouting experts and team executives, makes a
prediction as to the likely round in which a player would be
drafted. This information, which has proved to be fairly accurate,
can help college players determine whether to enter the draft or to
continue playing and improving at the college level. There are also
many famous reporting scouts, such as
Mel
Kiper Jr. and
Todd McShay.
NFL Scouting Combine
The NFL
Scouting Combine is a three-day showcase, occurring every year at
the end of February in Indianapolis
, Indiana's Lucas Oil Stadium
, where college football players perform physical
and mental tests in front of NFL coaches, general managers and
scouts. With increasing interest in the NFL Draft, the
scouting combine has grown in scope and significance, allowing
personnel directors to evaluate upcoming prospects in a
standardized setting. Its origins have evolved from the National,
BLESTO and Quadra Scouting services in 1977, to the media frenzy it
has become today.
Tests/evaluations include:
Athletes attend by invitation only. Implications of one's
performance during the Combine can affect perception, draft status,
salary and ultimately his career. The draft has popularized the
term "
Workout Warrior" (sometimes known
as a "Workout Wonder"), describing an athlete who, based on
superior measurables such as size, speed and strength, has
increased his "draft stock" despite having a possibly average or
subpar college career.
Pro Day
Each university has a pro day, where NFL scouts are allowed to come
and watch players participate in the events that take place at the
Combine at their own school.
See also
References
-
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/NFL-rookie-holdouts-Two-who-succeeded-two-who-?urn=nfl,194624
-
http://blogs.nfl.com/2009/04/28/draft-moving-to-prime-time/
- ESPN - Chiefs get largest rookie pool to pay draft
picks - NFL
- Isaac Cheifetz, Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company
Can Select Talent Like a Champion (2007), 68, available at
Google Books
- Rich Eisen, Total Access: A Journey to the Center of the
NFL Universe (2007), 128, available at Google Books
- David Schoenfield, Page 2: The 100 worst draft
picks ever, ESPN.com, April 26, 2006 (see #45, Mike
Mamula, a "workout wonder")
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