Tuesday 25 April 2017 11:00, UK
In the early hours of Friday morning, the 2017 draft gets underway.
Despite a glorified "picking first in the school playground" style, the draft - which sees the best players graduating out of college enter the NFL - has become a showpiece event for the sport, and rightly so.
You can watch the first round live on Sky Sports 2 from 1am on Friday. Here’s a beginner’s guide on what to look out for...
Thursday's draft covers just the first in a total of seven rounds. For 2017, only 30 of the 32 teams in the NFL gets a pick in the first round, rather than the usual 32.
Due to trades, the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots - defending Super Bowl champions - won't select a player till Friday's second and third rounds, with the Rams picking 37th and the Pats having to wait till the 72nd selection.
The Tennessee Titans (4th, 18th) and New Orleans Saints (11th, 32nd), meanwhile, are the two fortunate teams to have two first-round selections. As for the rest, what number they pick at is based on their performance in the previous season, from worst to first. So the Cleveland Brows - holders of the worst record in the 2016 season - have the unenviable honour of owning the first overall pick. But this could still all change. Speaking of...
The Rams don't own a first-round pick because of their bold move to trade up last year from the 15th pick to number one - the selection of their quarterback of the future, Jared Goff, costing them, among other things, their Thursday night pick in the 2017 Draft.
That just shows the type of jostling for premium positions that can still take place either in the build-up to the draft or on the day itself, as it is unfolding.
Trades will almost certainly take place as teams look to guarantee that the player they want is available by the time they pick, and the surest way to do that is to leapfrog up the order by offering lower round picks, or even players in exchange for the privilege to pick higher.
For once, it looks like a quarterback isn't going to be picked first overall - for only the sixth time in the the Draft since the turn of the century - due to what is considered by many to be a poor draft class at the position.
North Carolina's Mitchell Trubisky, Clemson's Deshaun Watson. Notre Dame's DeShone Kizer or Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes? Which of these names is going to be the next NFL great at the position?
It's a costly pick to get wrong, as the Rams are finding out after a poor first year for Goff, so that is why teams are tentative to reach for a quarterback too early, and there is talk of teams trading down in the draft to make their QB selection with a less costly pick. Having said all that, the San Francisco 49ers - who own the second selection overall - are rumoured to be interested in one, showing the immense importance placed on finding your franchise quarterback for the future.
Philadelphia hosts the draft for the first time since 1961. It’s the third year running in which the draft has been held outside of its more traditional New York home, following Chicago's stellar efforts over the last two years.
Look out for local Eagles fans to stamp their own unique imprint on proceedings. Some of the best moments of draft days past have been the ‘colourful’ reactions by the New York fans to picks by their beloved Giants and Jets, so Philadelphia’s selection with the 14th pick will be worth watching.
Someone will cry. In fact, almost all of them cry. Keep your eyes peeled when the camera cuts to a tearful giant in the green room hugging their family and agent, as it should give you a head-start on who the selection with the next pick will be.
Things don’t always go to plan, though, as some are left sitting anxiously, waiting for the phone to ring with the cameras circling and the room emptying. Even Green Bay Packers' great Aaron Rodgers wasn't selected until the 24th pick in the 2005 Draft.
For those who choose not to attend, the entertainment is provided when the camera cuts to them with their friends and family assembled in their living room who, realising they’re on TV, bundle on the player picked like they are trying to sack a quarterback.
A player’s talent is always the main pull towards them being a top pick. But sometimes their questionable character can see them drop down the pecking order, and similarly some unknown players or ones with bags of potential but have yet to produce consistently, can go higher than expected.
Consider if you will, PFA Player of the Year award winner N'Golo Kante versus £89 million man Paul Pogba in a draft-style scenario before this year's Premier League. Who would have been picked higher at the start of the season, and who would you pick now?
Follow the 2016 NFL Draft on Sky Sports 1 from midnight on Thursday and via our live blog here at www.skysports.com/nfl
