NFL Draft Betting Tips: How The NFL Draft Works

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Professional writer of over 23 years. I started off as a junior reporter for a local newspaper before moving into sport. Spent four years at Teletext Sport with Press Association before being made redundant. Got involved with BettingPro under the previous owner, then after a break came back under Catena Media. Rugby League writer and author with four RL books on sale and one football book.

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NFL Draft Betting Tips: How The NFL Draft Works

American sports love the draft system. It was put in place to allow the best college players in America to get the best possible opportunity of fulfilling their dreams.

By staying in education, hundreds of players get the chance to be part of something special. Going to college and getting an education is the best possible route for young stars to break into professional sport and the NFL lead the way.

Although some players do make it to the NFL without going through the education system, it is not recommended.

Not only does the draft allow players an incentive to stay in school, it also stops the best teams picking the best college players – there is a strict code in the NFL draft.

Basically, to keep it simple, the poorer your side is the higher they are in the draft. If your team ranked 32 out of 32 in the previous season, then they would get the number one pick slot. The Super Bowl winner will get the 32nd and final pick in the first round.

Draft Rounds & Trades

The NFL draft consists of seven rounds. This allows each team to have seven picks in each round. There will be 262 selections overall in the seven rounds.

Teams can trade with other teams to get better positions on the board, but it will cost them. If let’s say the Chicago Bears wanted to swap positions with the Washington Commanders, then the Bears would probably give up a first-round pick next season, a round two and round three pick. The Commanders would be in a position to barter for the best deal in order to compensate them for giving up their first-round pick.

Another example of this can involve trading your best players for draft picks. The Detroit Lions traded their quarter-back Matthew Stafford ahead of the 2021 draft to the LA Rams. The Rams gave them first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 plus a player of their own – Jared Goff.

That means that the Rams will not be able to pick in the first round of the NFL draft in 2022 unless they do another deal – but they probably do not have a lot left to bargain with.

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2022 NFL Draft Order

I have explained how the order of the draft works. Here is the order for the 2022 NFL draft, with the relevant trades in brackets:

Round One

  1. Jacksonville Jaguars
  2. Detroit Lions
  3. Houston Texans
  4. New York Jets
  5. New York Giants
  6. Carolina Panthers
  7. New York Giants (from Chicago Bears)
  8. Atlanta Falcons
  9. Seattle Seahawks (from Denver Broncos)
  10. New York Giants (from Seattle Seahawks)
  11. Washington Commanders
  12. Minnesota Vikings
  13. Houston Texans (from Cleveland Browns)
  14. Baltimore Ravens
  15. Philadelphia Eagles (from Miami Dolphins)
  16. New Orleans Saints (from Indianapolis Colts through Philadelphia Eagles)
  17. Los Angeles Chargers
  18. Philadelphia Eagles (from New Orleans Saints)
  19. New Orleans Saints (from Philadelphia Eagles)
  20. Pittsburgh Steelers
  21. New England Patriots
  22. Green Bay Packers (from Las Vegas Raiders)
  23. Arizona Cardinals
  24. Dallas Cowboys
  25. Buffalo Bills
  26. Tennessee Titans
  27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  28. Green Bay Packers
  29. Kansas City Chiefs (from San Francisco 49ers through Miami Dolphins)
  30. Kansas City Chiefs
  31. Cincinnati Bengals
  32. Detroit Lions (from LA Rams)

The Rams, Bears, Dolphins, 49ers, Raiders, Broncos, Colts and Browns will not have a first-round pick in 2022.

On The Clock

A term you hear a lot during the NFL draft is ‘On The Clock’.

When a team is on the clock, that means they have a certain amount of time to make their selection. If the time goes down and they fail to select a player, they will lose their turn and the player they wanted to draft will still be up for grabs to the rest of the teams.

In round one, the teams will have 15 minutes to select their player. This then drops to 10 minutes during round two and five minutes in round three through to seven.

Mr Irrelevant

There is a lot of pressure on having the number one pick. The team have to be 100% confident they have the right player. And the player will have to be strong enough to take the pressure that comes with being the number one pick.

What about the player who is last in the draft?

That is a whole lot of pressure. The last player gets labelled as ‘Mr Irrelevant’. It might seem cruel, but the last pick is the only player in the draft to have a formal celebration. The last pick is celebrated and treated like a celebrity. He probably gets more publicity than the number one pick.

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Professional writer of over 23 years. I started off as a junior reporter for a local newspaper before moving into sport. Spent four years at Teletext Sport with Press Association before being made redundant. Got involved with BettingPro under the previous owner, then after a break came back under Catena Media. Rugby League writer and author with four RL books on sale and one football book.