Introduction

Many years ago, I happened upon some live coverage of the NFL Draft. It was 2008 and I knew American Football by now. I’d been watching for about ten years, was playing the game at this time and I loved tuning in for the games on Sunday night. When I came across the Draft that year, my experience of American Football changed beyond all recognition. I taught myself the Draft, and there is definitely something to be said for discovering this wonderful world all by yourself but I would have liked a helping hand to get me going. It is in this spirit that I write this section of my website, dedicated to helping international fans of the NFL understand the Draft from the beginner stage. Caveat here that I will reference things that make more sense to sports fans on this side of the pond so this wouldn’t be suitable for American sports fans but I guess there’s less of those wanting to understand the Draft in more detail without a resource to do so.

So this is a beginner’s guide to the NFL Draft, I’m going to start with the basics and move through some of the more complex elements to an event that, for me, surpasses all others on my sporting calendar. It is my firm belief that I won’t be alone in my enjoyment of the Draft as an international fan and hopefully I can help some others along in understanding the three days in April that is the NFL Draft. One caveat here too is that I will assume some level of understanding of the NFL and American Football, mainly because I assume most fans point of entry for enjoyment of American Football is not watching a few men read out names for three days – that’s the only time I’ll be disparaging about the Draft.

Why you might love the NFL Draft

Now, to get here you’ve probably sought out a beginners guide to the NFL Draft so I probably don’t need to convince you of the joy that can come from a closer following of it but I’m going to anyway because most people watch the Kevin Costner movie Draft Day before getting excited about the Draft and that sets some pretty unrealistic expectations as you’ll hopefully learn later.

Apologies for those who aren’t soccer (despite my love of American Football I still cringe when I hear soccer, not football, but I need to here to distinguish the two) fans but I’m going to use an analogy from that world to demonstrate the excitement that is Draft Day. Transfer Deadline Day can be one of the most exciting days in the footballing calendar, a day when dreams are still unfulfilled and therefore possible and the new signing from Peru that you’ve never heard of could raise your expectations for the coming season. The reality is some deadline days turn out to be wet flannels – a thorough disappointment with big deals tantalised but not finalised throughout the day and your own team steer clear of the market altogether.

Now imagine a Transfer Deadline Day where your team could acquire multiple players, usually an average of seven, and some being the best players coming into the league. Imagine that the very best young player coming into the league is not bought but selected from a pool of talent by newly promoted Fulham and where newly crowned champions Manchester City aren’t able to cherry pick the very best players in the market but only get the twentieth best player after all the other teams have selected before them. If you can imagine a day like this and the wondrous excitement it could hold for you then the NFL Draft may well be for you. Of course this is a rather simplistic comparison and there are many nuances to the Draft but the sense of excitement you could get from this mirage holds true. The Draft is the main way that exciting new talent is acquired by NFL teams and it is concentrated into three days in April, usually adding up to less than 24 hours in total of selecting players. Outside of the salary cap, the Draft is the NFL’s main tool of parity and hope burns brightly for even the league’s worst team on the Sunday following the Draft. That combined with the pageantry, tradition and excitement that College Football will give you – you’ll be led to this by the Draft – and you can raise your level of enjoyment of American Football significantly.