NFL draft history: Look back at event's evolution from decades back all the way to Detroit
The NFL draft has been a staple of professional football for nearly all of the league's history and the 89th edition of the event will occur in downtown Detroit on April 25-27.
The annual event allows the 32 NFL franchises to select the top prospects in football from around the world and secure the ability to sign them to a contract for the first four years of their career, with an extra year of control for first-round picks.
The draft has a long history, starting with a ho-hum operation in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia and has morphed into a three-day event that moves to a new city each offseason drawing thousands of visitors and millions of viewers hungry for football.
Here is a look at the history of the NFL draft:
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The first NFL draft
The NFL draft was born out of contempt from an owner. According to the NFL, the league instituted a waiver system in 1934 allowing teams to pick up available players, but Philadelphia Eagles co-owner Bert Bell believed the system put his birds at a disadvantage in attracting players because of money disparities. At a 1935 league meeting, Bell proposed a draft each offseason to level the playing field and to help each franchise remain financially sound, which was unanimously approved by NFL owners.
The first draft occurred in 1936 in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia, where reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago was selected with the first overall pick by the Eagles. However, according to the NFL, Berwanger never played in the NFL, instead opting for a career as a foam rubber salesman.
NFL teams had a pool of 90 players to select from, formed by newspaper reports, recommendations to front offices and visits to local colleges — a far cry from today's year-round scouting. Eighty-one players were selected in the inaugural draft, but only 24 played in the NFL with many opting for a different career paths since the league was in its infancy.
Was the NFL the first sports draft?
Yes.
The NFL paved the way by using the draft as the main vehicle to infuse new talent into the league. Eleven years after the first NFL draft, the NBA held its first draft in 1947. The NHL and MLB took nearly 20 more years to adopt a draft process, with hockey beginning in 1963 and baseball in 1965.
The first draft of the common NFL draft era was 1967 after the NFL and AFL merged. Before then, both leagues held separate drafts and often engaged in bidding wars since players came from the same prospect pool.
Where has the NFL draft been held?
The NFL stuck with hosting the draft in hotels for most of the draft's history, moving from Philadelphia to New York in 1937 at the Hotel Lincoln, now known as the Row NYC hotel. From 1938-1941, the draft moved to hotels in Chicago, back to New York, Milwaukee and Washington.
In 1965, New York became the permanent home of the draft for the next 50 years. The draft moved between New .York hotels from 1965-94, including the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, the Belmont Plaza Hotel and Marriott Marquis among others. In 1995, the draft moved to the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden, where it remained until 2004. The home of the draft then moved to the Radio City Music Hall from 2006-14.
The NFL then decided to take the draft back on the road, starting back in Chicago for 2015 and 2016, then opened up future NFL drafts for cities to bid on to host. The draft went to Nashville (2017), Dallas (2018), Philadelphia (2019) and was then virtual in 2020, starting from commissioner Roger Goodell's basement. The draft returned to the road in 2021 with Cleveland, then Las Vegas (2022), Kansas City (2023) and now Detroit.
Where is the draft next year?
The 2025 NFL draft location has been set in a place Detroit fans are not a big fan of.
Next year's draft will take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the Packers. The draft will take place at the historic Lambeau Field. Detroit Lions team owner Rod Wood said it was impressive Detroit was able to secure the draft before Green Bay given Lambeau's historical standing in the NFL.
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How many picks are in an NFL draft?
It all depends. As mentioned earlier, the first-ever draft had 81 picks, while the 2024 draft is scheduled to have 257 selections. All 32 teams receive one pick in each of the seven rounds which comes out to 224, though the Miami Dolphins lost their third round pick for violating the anti-tampering rules two years ago. There are also 34 compensatory picks awarded to teams awarded to teams losing players in free agency that fit the required criteria of a compensatory free agent.
The draft grew from 81 players in Year 1 to 100 in 1937 and 200 by 1939. The draft expanded to the 300s in 1943 and remained that high in most years until it dipped to the 200s from 1960-65. The draft cracked 400 players selected in 1967 with 445 selections and stayed above 400 until reaching an all-time peak in 1976 at 487 players selected. The draft dropped back to the 300s from 1977-92, followed by 224 players selected in 1993. Since then, the number of players selected has remained between 222 and 262, with most falling in the 250s.
Has the NFL draft always been seven rounds?
No, but it has remained at seven rounds since 1994, a year after the NFL introduced free agency. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first draft consisted of nine rounds before increasing to 10 the next year and 20 by 1939. The draft grew to 32 rounds in the 1940s, then shrunk back down to 12 by the time of the merger.
The NFL hosted an eight-round draft in 1993 according to ESPN, but moved to seven permanently the next year. Fewer players were outright selected in the shorter draft, but teams could now sign players as free agents if their rights were not drafted.
Has the combine always been a part of draft process?
The NFL combine allows all teams to get a firsthand look at the available prospects and get measurements for the size and athleticism of each player.
In 1976, the New York Jets started hosting college prospects for pre-draft physicals and interviews, and other teams began following suit but it became time-consuming for prospects to travel around the country for these workouts, taking away from their time in class (student-athlete still meant student first back then).
In 1982, the National Football Scouting (NFS) group decided to host a National Invitational Camp for all prospects, the first combine, and it opened to every team by 1985. In 1987, the combine moved to Indianapolis, the host city ever since.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL draft history: Event's evolution from 1936 to this year in Detroit
