The annual first-year player draft held every spring, otherwise known in short form as the NFL Draft, is one of the single most exciting events of the season in the National Football League. For some, it even eclipses the Super Bowl for its drama of when and where the year’s top college prospects will be selected over the course of the draft, making dreams come true for the players and (hopefully) improving the fortunes of the franchises that selected them.
The NFL Draft has, in some form, been around since 1936, which means the league has a long draft history in its archive.
The goal of each draft is to create greater parity in the league, which is why the official order in every draft begins with the teams with the worst records from the previous season. That means the Chicago Bears were originally slotted for the top pick in this spring’s draft while the Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs, are scheduled to pick at the bottom of every round.
As for the number of rounds, the current era of football has seven rounds in each spring’s NFL Draft, but that number has been as high as 20 rounds in years past. Those days were in the league’s earliest days, but even as recently as the 1970s, the NFL had as many as 17 rounds, which was reduced to 12, before finally landing at 7 rounds.
There are 32 teams in the league over 32 rounds, but it’s also important to note that the number of picks can change via forfeiture or the awarding of compensatory picks—of which there are up to 32 awarded in any offseason.
This year, there are 259 draft picks that are scheduled to be made in the 2023 NFL Draft across seven rounds, including only 31 in the first round after the Miami Dolphins were docked a pick for tampering charges. Last year, there were 262. In 2021, the number was at 259 again. Until the league adds another round, expands its structure, or alters its formula for compensatory selections, fans should expect the draft pick total in a given season to remain slightly above 250.