NFL Draft
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The NFL Draft is process by which the NFL determines which college football players will play for which NFL teams. The thirty-two teams of the league take turns making selections from those players who are ending their college football careers. The fundamental principle of the draft (though every year there are exceptions, as will be explained below) is that the team with the worst record from the previous season will have the first choice of players, and the team with the next worst record will choose next, and so forth. The final two picks are reserved for the teams that appeared in the Super Bowl, with the champion choosing last. After each of the league's teams has chosen once, the first round is completed. The second round then proceeds in the same manner. After seven rounds, the draft is completed.
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[edit] Venue
It has been in New York City since 1965 and has had to move into larger venues as the event has gained in popularity, drawing fans from across the country. The 2006 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall, the first time this venue has hosted the gala, and it has been 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.[1] Long waits in line can be expected for fans hoping to get a live glimpse of their team's high-profile picks, or to express their displeasure at their team picking the "wrong" guy. Fans must arrive early in order to attend the draft.[citation needed]
Since its first broadcast on ESPN in 1980 the draft has gained a cult-like following. The term draftnik was coined to describe these fanatics.
[edit] Procedure and Rules
The current format consists of seven rounds. Each team is assigned a selection in each round, with the team with the worst record from the previous year being assigned the first pick in each round. The team with the second-worst record gets the second pick, and so on. Ties are broken by strength of schedule. In the event that the strengths of schedule are equal, a coin is flipped to determine who picks first. For teams that qualified for the playoffs, ties are broken first in the order in which they were eliminated from the postseason. However, the Super Bowl participants make the final two selections, with the team that lost the game picking next to last, and the winner picking last.
The draft currently takes place over two days, with rounds one and two on Day 1 and rounds three through seven on Day 2. 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.
[edit] Compensatory Picks
In addition to the 32 picks in each round, there are a total of up to 32 picks dispersed 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.
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.
[edit] Eligibility
The draft is the first chance each team gets at players who have been out of high school for three years. Most drafted players come directly out of college programs as seniors or juniors, while some players are selected from other professional leagues like the Arena Football League. 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.[citation needed]
[edit] Salaries
The NFL allows each team to spend a limited amount of money from its salary cap to sign rookies (including undrafted players). Teams with higher picks get a higher rookie salary cap allocation. The salary cap increases from the year before, so most years there is more money allotted to teams for signing rookies. This form of salary control is legal because it has been negotiated into the NFL's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).
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, any non-drafted rookies are allowed to 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.
[edit] Supplemental Draft
In late summer, the NFL also holds a Supplemental Draft to accommodate players who did not enter the regular draft because they thought they still had academic eligibility to play college football. 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, RB Tony Hollings was taken by the Houston Texans in the second round of the Supplemental Draft in 2003; thus, in the 2004 NFL Draft, the Texans forfeited a second-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 2007, players who enter the Supplemental Draft usually are graded as players who should be drafted at a later round, or who have college eligibility problems (poor academic or discipline issues). Only 38 players have been taken since the NFL instituted the Supplemental Draft in 1977.
[edit] Events leading up to the Draft
[edit] NFL Scouting Combine
The NFL Scouting Combine is a three-day showcase, occurring every year at the end of February in Indianapolis, Indiana's RCA Dome, 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:
- 40 yard dash
- Bench press
- Vertical jump
- Broad jump
- 20-yard shuttle
- Three-cone drill
- 60-yard shuttle
- Position-specific drills
- Interviews
- Physical measurements
- Injury evaluation
- Drug screen
- The Cybex test
- The Wonderlic Test
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, whereby an athlete, based on superior measurables such as size, speed and strength, have increased their "draft stock" despite having a possibly average or subpar college career.[citation needed]
[edit] 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. This is done as it is believed that players feel more comfortable at their own campus than they do at the Combine and therefore should perform better. Major college teams, which produce a large quantity of NFL prospects, generate huge interest from scouts and coaches at their pro days.
[edit] See also
- List of NFL first overall draft choices
- List of professional football drafts
- Mr. Irrelevant
- List of NFL Draft broadcasters
[edit] References
- ^ NFL Draft Basics: Fan Tickets. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
[edit] External links
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