Football draft how does it work

The NFL draft is a two-day event in which all 32 teams take their turns selecting these players. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the event that determines the future success of NFL teams by explaining the ground rules of the event, the selection process, and who is eligible to be drafted.

The NFL Draft is always held over a weekend in April, which happens to be halfway between the date of the Super Bowl and the beginning of training camp in July.

The exact date for the draft varies from year to year. The draft consists of seven rounds, with rounds one through three held on Saturday, and rounds four through seven on Sunday. The average round consists of 32 picks, which allows each team approximately one pick per round. Some teams have more than one pick in a round, and some teams may not have any picks in a round.

Picks per team vary because draft picks can be traded to other teams, and the NFL can award additional picks to a team if the team loses players designated as restricted free agents. A free agent is a player whose contract has expired and is eligible to sign with another team. A restricted free agent is a player for whom another team can make an offer, but his current team is allowed to match that offer.

If the current team chooses not to match the offer, it may receive compensation in the form of a draft choice. The NFL awards compensatory picks based on the net loss of restricted free agents. The limit for compensatory picks is four per team. Due to compensatory picks and the addition of expansion teams, the total number of picks has varied since the draft was reduced to seven rounds in There were players selected in the NFL Draft, which was the most since Between and , the draft consisted of 12 rounds, and from to there were 17 rounds per draft.

Within each round, each team takes its turn in selecting a player. In the next section, we will take a closer look at how the selection process works. As soon as the game clock at the Super Bowl expires, a new clock starts ticking. That's the clock that ticks down to the first player selected in the NFL draft in April.

When a team is on the clock , it means that it has the next selection in the draft and has a set amount of time to make a selection. While the team with the first selection is on the clock from the end of January, which is when the Super Bowl is played, the clock begins for real on draft day. On the first day of the draft, the NFL commissioner steps to the podium on the stage at The Theater at Madison Square Garden and announces that the first team in the draft order is on the clock.

During the draft, one team is always on the clock. In round one, teams have 15 minutes to make their choice. The decision time drops to 10 minutes in the second round and to five minutes in rounds three through seven. If a team doesn't make a decision in their given time, the next team can pick before them, and the team that missed its turn can submit its selection at any time after their time is up.

A team's draft position is in reverse correlation with the success it achieved on the field during the previous year, which is why the team with the worst record has the first pick of each round, and the Super Bowl champion has the last pick.

This is the default draft position for these teams unless they choose to trade their picks. The other 30 teams fall somewhere in between based on the following factors:. In the next section, we will go inside a team's draft day war room and see how selections are made. Teams begin assessing the abilities of college players months if not years prior to the NFL draft. Scouts, coaches, general managers, and sometimes even team owners compile statistics and notes in their evaluation of hundreds of college football's best players before they make their selection.

The combine is an annual event where more than of the top draft-eligible players are invited to showcase their abilities. The combine is also when the media and fans begin focusing their attention on draft day. After assessing the players, teams will make their wish lists for the players they want to draft.

Then they determine their alternative selections, because if a team doesn't have the top two or three picks in the draft, drafting any particular player is not guaranteed. On draft day, the team's key personnel huddles together in a room, known as the War Room.

ET on Saturday. Those who are watching the draft on TV can expect the first-round broadcast to last roughly three hours and end around 11 p. On Day 2, when Rounds will be completed, the broadcast that starts at 7 p.

ET will last roughly four hours, also ending around 11 p. Day 3, which begins at noon with the top of the fourth round, typically lasts six to seven hours. Of course, this doesn't include the year-round preparation on the part of each team's scouting and personnel staffs.

In that regard, one could argue the NFL Draft never ends. The rules for player eligibility in the NFL Draft are relatively simple. In order to be eligible for the NFL Draft, a player must be at least three years removed from high school.

That means a college football player is eligible to enter the NFL Draft after his junior season or, in some cases, his redshirt sophomore season. These underclassmen must apply for approval to enter the NFL Draft reviewed by the NFL's player personnel staff , and they have until seven days after the college football national championship game to do so.

As for seniors who enter the NFL Draft, they are only eligible in the year after the end of their college eligibility. They also work with agents, schools, scouts and teams to enforce league rules for pro days and private workouts. Compensatory NFL Draft picks have been around since They aim to — you guessed it — compensate. Compensatory picks allow NFL teams who lost free agents to others teams in the previous year to, yep, compensate for those losses with additional NFL Draft picks.

Compensatory picks are awarded on the back ends of the third, fourth, firth, sixth and seventh rounds, and up to 32 can be awarded each year. No team can receive more than four compensatory NFL Draft picks in a given year. If a team qualifies for more than four compensatory picks, it will receive the four highest possible picks. The formula the NFL uses to award compensatory draft picks has never been made public.

SN contributor and salary-cap expert Jason Fitzgerald came up with the basics and methodology for predicting them. According to the NFL, the formula is based on "salary, playing time and postseason honors.

Only what the NFL calls compensatory free agents, not every free agent lost or signed by another team, are covered by this mystery formula. A team that loses more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in the previous year is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks. This year, the Ravens, Bengals, Colts, Rams, Giants and 49ers qualified for compensatory picks under the formula, but they didn't get them because, as the NFL states, "the final numerical values of the compensatory free agents who were lost by those clubs ranked 33rd through 39th among the final numerical values of all compensatory selections.

Each of those six clubs will receive compensatory selections for other compensatory free agents lost whose final numerical values ranked within the top A list of the compensatory picks that were awarded for the NFL Draft can be found here.

To explain, we refer to the draft-pick allotment breakdown referenced above. In addition to those picks, the NFL can assign as many as 32 compensatory picks throughout the league at the end of the third through seventh rounds. All of these picks are eligible to be traded, and trades often impact the amount of picks with which a given team enters an NFL Draft.

This means the Falcons stand a better chance of landing their man, while the Broncos, who may not need to draft a top-four QB, would be happy to wait a few more turns and gain an extra pick in the second round No. On top of trades on the night, a number of draft picks have already been traded throughout the last few seasons for existing professional players. Who will be the No.

Quarterbacks are the most valuable, most influential players in a team. He is expected to be selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars by the vast majority of fans, pundits and everyone connected with the sport.

Teams will have their targets in mind, with months of intensive scouting and research going into their plans, but that could all change should an unexpected pick be made or a blockbuster trade gazumps teams around them. Sign in. Back to Main menu What to watch Film news. Our editorial is always independent learn more. A world of sport in one place Updates from the world of sport on TV, including news, views and how to watch it all live.

Sign me up!