The NFL Draft: Where Dreams Are Made (and Sometimes Delayed)

23 April 2025

“It’s huge and it's become an event. I mean, we talk about it for months leading up to the actual draft and what it's selling is hope, right?”

The 2025 NFL draft is now just hours away. Thousands of college graduates are hoping to be snapped up by one of the 32 teams. This is the focus of sporting attention in the USA and to preview what we can expect this year, as well as to help those unfamiliar with the NFL understand what goes on across the seven rounds in three days, Super Bowl champion and former Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and New York Giants player, podcaster and broadcaster, Jason Bell met up with the This Sporting Planet team.
Jason, despite his incredible career, has a less happy memory of his own draft year.
“I sat there and watched everybody go before me when I was finally picked up in the NFL. So I'm somewhat of an expert on not being picked.”
Just a temporary set-back.
Let’s start at the beginning. What is the draft? Here’s Jason Bell’s brief explainer!
“You got 32 teams, you got seven rounds and it's worst of firsts. If you were the worst team in the NFL that year, you'd probably get the first pick. So, what does that mean? That means if you are the worst team, you can flip your roster immediately with top talent coming out of the draft. And usually when you look at the starting quarterbacks throughout the league, they're all pretty much first round picks. Everybody's got to pick in each round based on where they finished in the last year. 250 picks and it goes all the way until the seventh round and hopefully you transform your team. A lot of times your roster is built up of guys that were drafted in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth round.
“So, it's not about the first round and how you build your team. So, you gotta pick smart and pick right in those later rounds. It's just fascinating because nobody knows what's gonna happen because you're waiting for the team in front of you to pick. Maybe they picked your player. Now you have to move and transition.
“Those war rooms they call them. They're in there making all these picks. They got these huge charts and boards and people are talking and people are arguing and people are discussing on what we're going to do next. And we get to watch it all play out and they are on the clock and they got to make a decision. And those decisions people, we get to evaluate these coaches and these front office people on these picks and how they handle it on that day. So, that's why the draft we’re all locked in on the event.
“Am I selling it? Are we gonna watch this thing? Geez, I just sold it to myself and I love it. Man, I like this!”
Yes, he sold it!

For the first time, the NFL Draft will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home to the league's most successful franchise, the Green Bay Packers. As the nation’s attention turns to “Titletown”, who are the players we should be looking out for?
Well, first up, Travis Hunter.
“He won the Heisman Trophy for those that don't know,” Jason explains. “The best player in college football. And what he is, is he's a ball player. And what I mean by that is he understands the game. He understands space.”
Then, what about Shedeur Sanders, son of the great Deion Sanders, now head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes?
“I think he can do it at the NFL level. It's about where they're picking him. The whole conversation now is where do you value him as a pick, right? That's what everybody's discussing. The guy's going in the first round. That's huge. Going in the first round is difficult. I mean, you have to be a great player, but where does he go? Where does he fit? Everybody has positives and negatives. The best coaches take your positives and make sure that's how they orchestrate and construct the team around you so you can be successful. I think he's quite polarizing just because of his confidence, but I've never played with a guy at the quarterback position who isn't confident at all.”
Defensive end Abdul Carter of Penn State generates a great deal of interest, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxon Dart might be a first pick candidate, while the hugely talented Cam Ward, another quarterback, is braced to make the step up to the NFL. Jason, for his part, is bowled over by Boise State’s running back Ashton Jeanty.
“A guy like that, he's just, when they have contact balance,it's amazing. And it's something you can't teach. You hit a guy and he just bounces off of you, hits the ground, spins, all kinds of stuff. This guy's got it. So, running backs haven't been valued the way they should be in my opinion, but now that's changing and shifting to somebody out of nowhere who we think doesn't value a running back or doesn't need a running back, go up and get him.”

So much for the first picks, but what about the players waiting and dreaming of that call? One of them could earn the nickname This Sporting Planet’s Todd Harris describes as “the best title of the draft”: Mr Irrelevant, the last man to be picked.