It’s just over a month before all 32 NFL teams will converge on the Motor City to participate in the traditional practice of selecting collegiate prospects, the vaunted NFL Draft.
By now, NFL fans have been inundated with an abundance of “mock drafts.” It begins for real on Thursday night, April 25, in Detroit, Michigan.
How many picks are there in the 2024 NFL Draft?
This year, the seven-round process will total three days, Thursday through Saturday, (April 25-27) and there will be a total of 257 picks. The first round takes place by its lonesome on Thursday evening. Rounds 2 and 3 are on Friday, and the remainder of the draft (Rounds 4-7) being completed on Saturday.
As of this writing, the Chicago Bears own the No. 1 overall pick due to last year’s trade with the Carolina Panthers (who finished an NFL-worst 2-15 in 2023). At No. 257 are the New York Jets, who actually own the final two picks on Saturday via compensatory selections.
This year, there would have actually been 258 picks. However, the league announced during the summer of 2022 that the Miami Dolphins would have to forfeit their third-round selection “following an investigation into whether the team violated league policies pertaining to the integrity of the game.”
Next year, the San Francisco 49ers will be forfeiting their 2025 fifth-round choice as punishment “due to an administrative payroll accounting error.” In April, the Niners saw their fourth-round selection drop from 131st to 135th also in regards to the payroll issue. However, that does not affect that total for the league’s three-day process this year.
In case you’re wondering, the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams each own 11 selections as of now – the most in the league. On the other hand, the aforementioned Bears, who have a pair of Top 10 selections (No. 1 and No. 9), have an NFL-low four picks.
From the first overall selection to “Mr. Irrelevant,” the NFL draft remains a fascinating exercise.