Everything You Need To Know About The NFL Draft
The National Football League’s annual draft is a big deal. Here’s how it works—and why you should care.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—for football fans, at least. With the Super Bowl over and free agency around the corner, fans can look forward to the NFL Draft in April. It’s when teams get the chance to pick up some fresh blood for their rosters—and to make some trades that might shake up the league in a big way.
Over the past three years, the NFL Draft has averaged between six and eight million viewers over the course of the three-day event.
Its popularity outnumbers that of any other major league sports draught in the United States, and it has evolved into a trademark event for the NFL over its 87-year history by providing fans with a first look at the league’s future stars.
With all eyes on the teams and potentially franchise-altering players on the line, fans should understand how the draught works, how picks are distributed, and the regulations that govern everything from player eligibility to how long teams have to make their decisions.
The 2022 NFL Draft will be held on April 28 and 30 this year and will be televised on the NFL Network, ABC, ESPN, and ESPN Deportes. Here’s what you should know.
How does the draught function?
Each of the 32 NFL teams has an automatic pick in each of the seven rounds of the draught. The event takes place over three days, with the first round on Thursday, the second and third rounds on Friday, and the remaining fourth through seventh rounds on Saturday.
Each team is allotted a table at the specified location – this year, Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders – where team selection representatives sit.
The reps connect with the executives who make the ultimate judgments back at team headquarters and relay each selection to NFL staff before publicly announcing them to the rest of the world.
During the first round, each team has 10 minutes to make their choice, seven minutes in the second round, five minutes in the third through sixth rounds, and four minutes in the seventh round.
If time runs out before a team has submitted its pick, the team may still make a selection; however, this opens the door for the following team(s) to make their pick ahead of them.
When it comes to selecting the top future NFL players, you’ll want to be as punctual as possible.
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Who is eligible to be drafted?
To be eligible for the draught, “athletes must have been out of high school for at least three years and must have used up their college eligibility by the start of the next college football season,” according to the NFL.
So, in essence, every college senior who has played four seasons of NCAA football is a draftable possibility.
Underclassmen and seniors who have not used up all of their college football eligibility, on the other hand, can obtain special permission from the NFL to declare for the draught. Such athletes must submit their requests to the NFL within seven days of the NCAA National Championship in this circumstance.
How does the team decide who to take in the draft?
Even the most highly touted prospects do not guarantee that they will develop into NFL stars, but teams rely heavily on their NCAA scouts to make the best decisions possible to fill any gaps in their lineups.
Teams have a few opportunities to watch top prospects meet in NFL-sponsored events like the East-West Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl, two All-Star-style games that match top prospects against each other, in addition to the scouting reports they receive. The National Invitational Camp, often known as the NFL Scouting Combine, is the most well-known of these activities.
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