Draft Procedure and Rules
The NFL Draft has been in
New York City since 1965 and has had to move into large
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.
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 are free, but 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.
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 strength of schedules 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 1-3 on day 1 and rounds 4-7 on day two. These combine
for a Saturday and Sunday two day event. Die hard fans who
stay through the end of day 2 may 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 15 minutes to make their choice. The
decision time drops to 10 minutes in the second round and to
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
late 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.
