The National Football League (NFL) is one of the most popular sports in America. For three days every April, the NFL draft provides teams with an opportunity to add to their rosters by adding collegiate players believed to be the best globally. The league is highly competitive, with an average college football player having a 0.2 percent chance of making it to one of the NFL's 32 member clubs. However, the possibility that recruited players may lead their new teams to glory motivates teams to compete for talent, whether in the first or last round.
NFL teams build their rosters in three ways: the draft of college players, trades with other teams, and signing free agents. A free agent is an individual whose contract has expired and is now eligible to sign with another team.
The selection is made based on the previous season's final standings in reverse order. Barring inter-club trades, each round begins with the team with the worst record and finishes with the Super Bowl champions. Teams that do not make the playoffs are given picks 1 through 20. Teams that make the playoffs are assigned 21 through 32 based on their postseason finish and regular-season record.
Seeded in slots 21-24 in reverse order of their regular-season records are the four clubs eliminated in the wild card round. For slots 25-28, the seeding is in reverse order of their final regular-season record of the four divisional-round teams. The two conference champions are ranked 29th and 30th in reverse order of their regular-season records. The Super Bowl losing club has the 31st choice in the draft, while the Super Bowl champion has the 32nd and last spot in each round.
If two teams end the regular season with identical records, their draft position is determined by the strength of the schedule, defined as a team's opponents' aggregate winning percentage. The club with the worse schedule receives the top selection to break the tie. If two teams have similar regular-season records and the same strength of schedule, division or conference tiebreakers are used to determine which club gets the higher choice.
When two teams have the same strength of schedule, the NFL uses tiebreakers to determine the winner of the division or conference. Suppose divisional or conference tiebreakers are not available, or ties between teams from different leagues still exist. In that case, it uses the following tie-breaking method: head-to-head, the best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, strength of victory in all games, best-combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed in all games, best net points in all games, best net touchdowns in all games, and coin toss.
The NFL draft's eligibility requirements are very straightforward. There is no minimum age restriction. All that is required is that draftee has been out of high school for at least three years. Additionally, once they have graduated, they must apply for the draft within one year of graduation or within four football seasons of graduating.
The NFL holds a supplemental draft in July for players whose eligibility has altered since the initial draft. Teams who need to fill in spots participate in this draft. Teams may participate in the supplemental draft by notifying the league of the round they wish to select a player. If no other team bids on the player, they get the player and forfeit a pick in the following year's NFL Draft in the same round. If numerous teams bid on the player, the highest bidder receives the player and forfeits the draft pick.
A successful draft can alter the course of a franchise for the rest of its life. Teams do their best to forecast how a player will perform at the top level of the game, but any draft pick has the potential to become an NFL hero. Perhaps a player selected in the sixth round this year will become the next Tom Brady.
