Draft guide

Each spring the National Football League gathers in New York City for the most American of sporting events: the draft.

It is an idea which is almost without parallel outside the States, where schools and universities play a unique role in the development of elite sportsmen and women.

The top gridiron prospects are not tied to professional youth academies but amateurs competing for colleges, with only the most promising among them being selected for the professional ranks.

Here we give you a full rundown of the main themes to look out for when this year’s draft gets underway on Thursday May 8.

Live NFL Draft

Who can enter the draft?

Any player who is three years removed from high-school graduation age is eligible to enter the NFL Draft. This usually means they are in their third year of college and are almost 21 years old at the youngest. There are exceptions, such as former Houston Texans defensive tackle Amobi Okoye. The Nigerian-born player finished high school at just 16 and gained his degree from the University of Louisville at 19. He was drafted in 2007 and had just turned 20 by the time he made his NFL debut.

It is also common for players who have been playing college football for fewer than three years to be drafted due to the redshirt system. This allows colleges to give a player a year off – usually their true freshman season – in order to lengthen their college eligibility. Therefore, a ‘redshirt sophomore’ like Johnny Manziel is draft eligible despite his two-year college career.

There are rare examples of NFL players who did not come through the college football system, the most notable currently being San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, who was a basketball star in college and was signed as an undrafted free agent. Britain’s Lawrence Okoye fits this description as well but he also went undrafted and was signed as a free agent.

Why is it so important?

The draft is the building block of all NFL franchises. Each team gets one pick in each of the seven rounds, unless they have traded picks or are awarded compensatory selections. It is no exaggeration to say that getting a pick right or wrong can make or break an NFL team’s chances of winning the Super Bowl in the subsequent years. 

Selecting the right player - as the Indianapolis Colts did when they picked Peyton Manning ahead of Ryan Leaf in 1998 - is critical. Would the Seattle Seahawks have won last year’s Super Bowl if they had not identified Russell Wilson as a bargain in the third round of 2012? The New England Patriots’ historic spell of success started when they found the steal to end all steals in 2000, selecting Tom Brady with the 199th overall selection. There are countless other examples.

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Although its implications may not become clear until a few years down the line, a successful series of drafts, or even one marquee selection, can transform an also-ran into a championship winner.

How is the order determined?

The first 20 picks go to the teams which did not make the play-offs in the previous season The team with the worst record picks first, followed by the team with the second-worst and so on. If two or more teams have the sam