I was looking at “Any given Sunday” last night and while I knew enough about American Football to follow it without any trouble I did have problems with “The Draft”.
I know/think it’s how college players move to the NFL but how does it work exactly?
Someone more knowlegeable than I am about football will come along in a moment to fill in the gaps in my explanation and/or correct me, but since no one has responded as I type this, I’ll start.
Basically it works like this: on a certain day in April(?) each year, each NFL team gets to pick 12 players from America’s colleges. The draft takes place in several rounds, and teams may trade draft picks for regular players. In theory, the team with the worst record gets the first pick each round, and the team with the best record gets the last pick in each round, with all the other teams falling somewhere in between, based on their record.
DISCLAIMER: THE STATEMENTS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS ARE PURELY HYPOTHETICAL.
Let’s say that after the Super Bowl, the Chicago Bears have the worst record in the NFL. The 2nd worst record belongs to the Cleveland Browns. The 3rd worst belongs to the Cincinnati Bengals, etc. The Tennesee Titans lost the Super Bowl to the St. Louis Rams. So the Titans wind up with the next-to-last pick, and the Rams wind up with the last.
Designated representatives of each team converge upon Las Vegas(?), to a well-equiped hotel ballroom complete with computers, phones, TV cameras, etc.
The Bears have had their eye on a beefy offensive lineman by the name of Eric Cartman. When the draft begins, the Bears’ representative stands up and declares: “The Chicago Bears pick Wattsamotta U offensive lineman Eric Cartman.” The crowd goes wild. Eric Cartman gets his face on the cover of Sports Illustrated for being the #1 Draft Pick.
Now it’s the Browns’ turn. They’re in need of offensive help, so they pick a red-hot running back named Kyle Broflofsky. The Browns’ representative stands up and declares: “The Cleveland Browns pick Altered State University running back Kyle Broflofsky.”
And so on.
Teams may trade away their draft picks. For example, the Rams could trade Kurt Warner ( :eek: ) to the Bears in exchange for their 1st round draft pick. In the first round, the Rams would pick in the Bears’ spot, and the Bears would pick in the Rams’ spot. In the second round, the Bears would pick in their own spot (1st), so the Bears theoretically could pick two picks in a row. NFL teams trade away draft picks for players all the time, and often times they do so quite strategically. It’s not uncommon for teams to trade players for draft picks in such a way that they’ll get to pick 3 or 4 players one after the other.
After a player is drafted, his agent will work out his salary, signing bonus, etc. with the team. I suppose a player could refuse any and all contracts offered to him by the team that drafts him and enter the NFL as a free agent, but the team that drafted him will have been screwed out of their pick by a cocky player. I wonder how the NFL deals with this?
Finally, let me add that the last player chosen in the draft, that is, the player chosen by the final team in the 12th round, gets a free trip to Disneyworld.
If a drafted player in the NFL doesn’t sign with the team that chose him, I believe he has one full year to sign with that team. If he doesn’t sign, he becomes a free agent. This might vary with the round that the player is chosen in. First round picks may not have as much freedom.
John Elway did this, threatening to sign a contract to play baseball with the Yankees rather than play for the (then) Baltimore Colts, who drafted him, even after he had publically stated he wouldn’t play for them. Six days after the draft, the Colts traded Elway to Denver for 2 players (including Denver’s first round pick - an offensive lineman) and a first round pick in the next draft.
Actually, 12 players per team would be a VERY deep draft. 254 players were drafted in the 2000 draft, which went 7 rounds.
Trading of picks is exceedingly common - for instance, I just looked up the 2000 draft, and 11 of the 31 first round picks had been traded, a couple more than once. At this time of year, teams who desperately need star players are usually bartering away draft picks to obtain aging veteran players from other teams, hoping they’ve still got a couple good years left.
Somebody like BobT will be along with the in-depth comments and corrections.
Oh, he’s here already - hello.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the draft, I’m no Mel Kiper, Jr.
NFL players don’t have a lot of leverage in their negotiations if they don’t like where they’ve been picked. Elway had another sport to go to, but I doubt he would have been as good a baseball player as a football player.
Charlie Ward opted for the NBA over the NFL because he was a fairly low draft pick and most NFL teams weren’t interested in him as a quarterback.
NBA players don’t have a lot of leverage either, but all first round draft picks receive identical contracts now for a certain amount of money and length of years. The last player I remember completely blowing off the team drafting him was Danny Ferry when he was chosen by the Clippers.
Baseball has a very weird draft and holdouts are quite common. Many players can opt to go to college (since many are drafted out of high school) or play in an independent league instead of signing with the team that drafted them.
I heard that the NFL was paring back the number of rounds in its draft. That’s the general trend. It’s just too much trouble to scout that many people and deal with that many agents. Also the various players’ unions like having more free agent rookies. It also takes a LONG time to finish.
The NBA draft is only 2 rounds. The baseball draft used to go on for as long as someone wanted to keep making picks, but I think it finally set a limit, but it might be something like 50 rounds.
The NFL draft used to be around 30 rounds.
If you want to see draft picks that have been traded, look up the history of the Saints’ deal to get Ricky Williams. The Saints gave up numerous draft picks over the course of the next few years just so they could move up a few spots to choose Williams.
When George Allen coached the Redskins, he routinely dealt almost all of his draft choices to get veteran talent. His philosophy was “The Future is Now.” During the same time, the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted a whole bunch of great players: Bradshaw, Lambert, Swann, Harris, etc.
Let history judge who had the better plan.
See also the Hershel Walker trade from the Cowboys to the Vikings. If Dallas wouldn’t have had a stupid owner, they could have won even more Super Bowls out of that trade. Hope I spelled Walker’s name correctly.
Alantus
Keep in mind now that the NFL has a strict salary cap so it’s pretty hard to keep all of your veterans around for a long time. Most teams only get a 2-4 year window of being Super Bowl quality.
That’s why we aren’t seeing the Cowboys, 49ers, and Bills doing very well anymore.
Thanks guys. 
I’d been told something about the low performing teams getting first choice but I wasn’t very clear about it.
BobT This sounds to me a good idea.
In the UK there football are teams like Man. Utd. and Arsenal etc. that remain at the top and dominating for too long IMHO.
This seems to spread the pleasure of watching your team win around a bit more.
It’s actually quite socialist 
Trust me Yojimbo, you don’t want a salary cap in the Premier League. You’ll never be able to keep any player on the roster for more than 2-3 years before his salary gets too high.
And Manchester United will figure out a way to get around a salary cap anyway. The 49ers and Cowboys did for a long time before the NFL cracked down on them for their creative bookkeeping.
The official title is “Mr. Irrelevant.” My alma mater, the University of Kentucky, produced a “Mr. Irrelevant” a few years ago, linebacker Marty Moore. And, I’m proud to say, he outgrew the trappings of that lowly title to become a sometime starter for the New England Patriots.
It should be noted that this would only happen if the two teams exchanged picks. Most likely in this case, The Bears would simply trade away their first round pick and not pick at all until the second round, while the Rams would pick 1st and 31st.
As for the salary cap, it’s wretched. Hmmmm, sounds like a thread for GD. . .
OK, so here’s the real question:
Say my team, the Springfield Inquisition, drafts beefy Wattsamotta U offensive lineman Eric Cartman in the first round. He refuses to sign unless I give him $300 million over two years. I don’t cough up the money, and he winds up playing hockey for the Peoria Pantywaists NHL team. I’ve thus been screwed out of my first-round draft pick. Does the NFL compensate me in some way, or do they just say, “Tough noogies!”?
Take a guess. You’re picking the right to offer this player a contract, and other teams are locked out of offering him a contract for a year. There’s no obligation for the player to accept said contract. It’s not likely to come to that, anyway. Cartman, or more accurately, Cartman’s agent, and the Inquisition will probably reach some agreement since Cartman probably has nowhere near the star and salary potential elsewhere that he does in the NFL.
One I’m curious about this year - what will happen with Weinke? Will Weinke go late in the draft in spite of being the Heisman trophy winner because of his age? How late in the draft has a Heisman winner gone in recent years?
Oh, this isn’t about military service?
How does a player become eligable to be picked in the draft? Can anyone be drafted, or do they have to be somehow put on a list of players that can be selected from so all the teams get to take a look and decide if they want to pick that player?
The NFL only drafts players who have completed their college eligibility or those who have sent the league a letter stating that they wish to be considered for the draft. In the latter case, the player must be at least three years out of high school.
So, the universe of NFL-eligible players is usually college seniors and a few very good juniors and sophomores.
The NBA has a much bigger group to look at as there many players in Europe and Australia who are eligible.
There are three people who completely understand baseball’s draft and they all work for Baseball America.
The NHL drafts players at 18, but the big difference is that the players can remain amateurs while still being “property” of the NHL team for 2 years. They can play in college or stay in the Canadian junior hockey leagues. If they don’t sign within 2 years they go back into the draft.
The advantage is that if a kid is a bust, they don’t have to pay him a big bonus and give him a big contract. They can use the extra 2 years to follow the player to see how he is developing. A few players go right to the NHL at age 18 but that is normally only the top 5 picks or so. At age 20 the players normally spend a few years in the minors before moving up to the NHL.
I wasn’t aware that Scott Boras worked for Baseball America.
Like him or hate him, I think he understands the draft as well as anyone.
Particularly as demonstrated by that Landon Powell business:
Briefly, Powell is a very highly touted prospect who was supposed to be eligible for next year’s MLB draft. He took his high school equivalency test and applied to be eligible for THIS year’s draft. He was granted his eligibility, and no one drafted him (because they didn’t know he’d was eligible–he’d have been drafted in the first two rounds had his eligibility been common knowledge). BECAUSE no one drafted him, he was granted his free agency and now stands to sign for a far bigger contract than he would have if he was drafted next year–because he can sign with any team. Scott Boras is the agent that helped engineer this.
Well, the football draft is only seven rounds nowadays. Charlie Ward was not drafted by the NFL, a couple years ago when the Jets sucked and the Giants weren’t that great either, a sports writer (Mike Lupica?) would always say that the best QB in New York was Charlie Ward (you know those sports writers and their rapier wit).
As for a salary cap in soccer or “real futbol” :rollseyes:. A salary cap would never work since it’s kind of a universal thing with all the teams in all the leagues are kind of competing. If a league was to institute a salary cap they’d really hurt the quality of play in their league.
Ugh! I hate that guy, I sit around and watch a ton of football too and then base my opinions on games and other games I’ve watched in the past, anyone want to pay me a bunch of money to pretend I know what I’m talking about???!! I hate that guy. I mean did he ever actually play football at a higher level?
I think a lot of people will disagree with you. Everyone says that the problem with baseball is that the Yankees can buy the championship ever year, not the case in football (ex: Redskins). Because of the cap we have these “feel good stories” with the Rams last year, and the Saints this year. However, even with the cap my Bears still look to have a very bleak future.
I’ve had a thread in the pit that no one seemed to agree with me that it was ridiculous for him to win the Heisman, but anyway . . . Mel Kiper, Jr. (same guy I mentioned above) said he’s probably a third round pick, take that for what it’s worth.
I think that should read: “he understands how to manipulate the draft better than anyone.” I agree that he does do his job very well and gets very good deals for his clients, I don’t know if that’s a good thing for the sport though.