Cam Ward started it off and 256 followed behind.
A night filled with high stakes and hopes, NFL draft round one began April 24, 2025, with rounds two through seven going through Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26. . Thirty-Two teams pick amongst the top college football athletes to finalize their teams for the fall. Many guesses will be made but more surprises will happen throughout these next crazy nights.
In 1290 the American Professional Football Association was found and officially named the National Football League in 1922, meaning the NFL has been around for more than 100 years. The draft however as been around for 90 years bringing in some of the best memories through the sport of football. The draft is one of the highest factors in collegiate athletes competing at the highest level in order to be drafted as high as possible. Scouts are constantly evaluating the players as well as the millions who watch the games during the week. This leads to many controversies during the draft selections and rounds.
Thomas Gingras a senior, always loves to watch the draft every year.
“I enjoy watching the draft because I get to see which schools send the most people to the NFL,” Tom said.
During the draft many surprises happen and lots of talk begins to happen around the world. In this years draft one surprise highlighted a projected top pick in the first round dropped to the 144th pick in the fifth round. This quarterback is Shedeur Sanders from the University of Colorado, son of NFL legend Dion Sanders. Sanders’ surprising drop had the nation in talks about if his father had anything to do with him going so late or whether he was fit for the NFL or not. Many talks also mentioned Sanders skipping interviews and the combine to not affect his stock that he previously had coming out of college.
Danny Bussard a junior, was surprised by the Shedeur Sanders drop in the draft.
“I was surprised some of the teams didn’t pick him earlier because I think he is a very good quarterback that can do a lot of damage in the league,” Danny said.
Another is the money that is made with being picked high in the draft. Number one overall pick Cam Ward is set to make $48 millions through four years with the titans and a $32 million signing bonus. Other top picks like Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, Will Campbell, and Mason Graham are all set to make more than $40 million over the next four years. They all also received more than a $20 million dollar signing bonus.
Even Kobee Minor, the 257th pick, known as “Mr. Irrelevant,” will make 4.3 million in four years.
Dean Ruksnaitis a junior, thinks the players skill is more important then what they are worth.
“I think that at the end of the day if the players who are getting paid less play better than the ones getting paid more it shows how money doesn’t mean how good you are compared to everyone else,” Dean said.
A draft tradition that lasts every year is the comparisons to past to present drafts. Always around draft year the fans and media all begin to compare which draft class had the best players and best draft. Many have difference in opinions due to bias and which players went to which teams and production in the NFL.
Quinn Martin a 7th grader a Williston shares his opinion on which draft had the best class.
“I think that the best draft class was 2017. There were some of the best player like Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffery and Myles Garrett who are some of the best in the league right now,” Quinn said.
This is important to cover because some of the players that were picked in this recent draft have the ability to change the NFL for the next upcoming years. This also can lead to some of the worst and biggest downfalls of players, coaches, and teams. All of this relates back to who the coaches and managers decided to pick and trade for in the draft that only happens once a year.
