Why are there only 31 picks in Round 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft?

There’s a price to be paid for winning the Super Bowl in a given year, one each team is happy to pay, and it comes over the three days known as the annual NFL Draft. It’s during that time that every other NFL franchise is allowed to pick their favorite college prospect in front of the champion in the draft order of each round—a built-in system to maintain parity and competitive balance.

For the Kansas City Chiefs, the spring after a Super Bowl win should mean selecting at No. 32 overall in the first round, but this year, they’re a step above where they should be. In fact, the whole first round only has 31 picks scheduled, which means it should be at least a couple of minutes shorter than other first-round broadcasts in recent years.

So why are there only 31 picks in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft?

It was shortly before the 2022 season started, during training camp last August. that the NFL levied some significant punishments on the Miami Dolphins. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and team exec Bruce Beal were accused of tampering with both quarterback Tom Brady and coach Sean Payton at various moments between 2019-2022. Not only was Brady under contract with another team, but they also didn’t pursue the proper channels to reach out to Payton to gauge his interest in leading the team.

For their part, the NFL fined Ross a total of $1.5 million and kept him away from his own team for the first third of the NFL season. Beal was suspended as well, and the team was stripped of its first-round pick in 2023 and a third-round pick in 2024.

That means you won’t hear the Dolphins at the podium on the opening night of the 2023 NFL Draft unless they find a way to trade into the festivities there in Kansas City. It also means the Chiefs get to pick one slot earlier than they should.