The 2025 NFL Draft, the league’s 90th annual event to select the future stars of the league, will begin on Thursday, April 24. After dispersing scouts to scour the nation’s top talents, all 32 teams will collect their final notes and prepare their war rooms in Green Bay, Wisc., for a high-stakes and fast-paced race to acquire talent.
The league is designed to drag every franchise to mediocrity — teams that finished with the worst record are rewarded with the highest picks, and the teams that won the most games are punished with late picks. The Philadelphia Eagles, for example, will have the last pick in each round after winning Super Bowl LIX.
Over the past 89 iterations of the draft, teams have learned from their prior mistakes and developed a solid understanding of which positions to prioritize and how to value their selections. Still, each organization and front office has its own philosophy on how to approach the draft.
Each team begins with one selection in each of the seven rounds for a total of 224 picks in each draft, but compensatory picks can cause the number of selections to vary on an annual basis.
How many picks are in the 2025 NFL Draft?
The 2025 NFL Draft contains a total of 257 picks, bookended by the Tennessee Titans at No. 1 overall and the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 257 overall.
While the first two rounds are standard with 32 selections each, the third round contains 38 selections due to six compensatory picks at the end of the round. The fourth round contains an additional four compensatory picks.
The fifth round contains eight compensatory picks, there are only 38 selections in the round due to two forfeited picks. The San Francisco 49ers forfeited their fifth-round pick because of a payroll accounting error from the 2022 season, and the Atlanta Falcons forfeited their 2025 fifth-round pick after violating the league's anti-tampering policy last offseason.
Teams typically begin with seven selections in each draft, but trades can help teams acquire additional selections. Some teams have compiled a slew of picks, while others have traded away a vast majority of their selections in exchange for proven veteran players.
Despite San Francisco’s forfeited fifth-round pick, they are still tied with the Baltimore Ravens for the most picks at 11 selections each. Seven teams — the Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks — are tied with 10 picks in this year’s NFL draft.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Minnesota Vikings have just four selections, the fewest among all teams. The Atlanta Falcons and Washington Commanders are also fairly depleted at five selections each.
The Texans, Seahawks, Eagles and Lions all had multiple Day 1 picks in 2023. Last year, the Bears, Vikings and Cardinals had two first-round selections. Surprisingly, this draft doesn’t feature a team with multiple first-round picks. The Bills, Bears and Seahawks have two second-round picks, but no other team picks more than twice in the first 64 picks. That could change once teams start making calls on Thursday night.