Football fans love seeing their favorite collegiate stars head to the pros.

Jumpstarting these young athletes’ careers, the NFL Draft took place on April 25, 2024.   Athletes coming out of their junior and senior seasons declare for the draft every year, but only 244 prospects are drafted. Every prospect draft ranking is based on statistics as well as the Combine results and pro days. The NFL Combine is where prospects do a

series of workouts and various drills to show team coaches and scouts their attributes and therefore potentially increase their draft ranking. Pro days are similar to the Combine, but the main difference is that after workouts and drills prospects can conduct interviews with NFL coaches and general managers.  

After all of this, comes the NFL draft where teams can figure out who will be their next franchise player. Having ‘mock drafts,’ sports analysts will attempt to predict which player will go to which team.  These predictions are based on draft rankings, combine results and pro-day results. 

University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams was chosen by  Chicago Bears selected with the first overall pick.

The Washington Commanders held the second pick; their prospect of choice was LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.  

The New England Patriots held the third overall pick, and with that, they selected North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. 

Coming in with the fourth overall pick, the Arizona Cardinals took Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. 

And rounding out the top five, the Los Angeles Chargers took Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt- not LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers. 

 The New York Giants ended up with Nabers with the sixth pick. 

You should not sleep on the later-round draft picks because talent is spread throughout it. Just last year, the Los Angeles Rams selected wide receiver Puka Nacua in the fifth round with the 177th overall pick, a year before that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was chosen with the very last pick in the draft. If a player is drafted with the

last pick in the draft, the player drafted is given the nickname “Mr. Irrelevant.”  This is because most players selected with the last pick usually don’t make team rosters; however, for Purdy, this was not the case. This year’s “Mr. Irrelevant” was safety Jaylen Key, who was picked by the New York Jets. 

Some of the names in the lower rounds consist of  Penn State tight end Theo Johnson, drafted by the Giants  in the fourth round,  and the Denver Broncos used their fourth-round pick on Oregon wide receiver Troy Franklin who will be reunited with his college teammate quarterback Bo Nix. In the fifth round Georgia center, Sedrick Van-Pran-Granger fell to the Buffalo Bills, who did not have a center on their roster before the draft. The New Orleans Saints drafted South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler in the fifth round who was actually projected as a second-round pick. 

One of the biggest steals of the draft is wide receiver Brenden Rice, who the Chargers used their seventh-round pick on. Rice was originally projected to go in the third round but slid all the way down to the seventh round. In his final year with the University of South California, Rice was ranked as the third-best receiver in his division. With the help of

former teammate Caleb Williams, Rice recorded 12 receiving touchdowns and 791 receiving yards. It is also important to mention that Rice’s father is a 49ers legend and NFL Hall Of Famer, Jerry Rice. 

 Not only do players get drafted, but some of the NFL’s biggest trades have happened on draft night. The most impactful trade in recent memory was when the Philadelphia Eagles traded for wide receiver A.J. Brown from the

Tennessee Titans. In return, the Titans got the 18th and 101st picks in the 2022 NFL draft. Those picks were used to draft wide receiver Treylon Burk,s and the 101st pick was traded to the New York Jets; they used that pick to draft tight end Jeremy Ruckert. 

After the draft has concluded, the remaining prospects are now called undrafted free agents or UDFA for short. One of the big names who went undrafted was former Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman. Hartman’s numbers throughout his collegiate career peaked in his sophomore year with 4,228 passing yards and threw 39 touchdowns; this was before he transferred from Wake Forest to Notre Dame. Hartman only spent one year at Notre Dame before declaring for the draft. There were 2,689 passing yards and 24 touchdowns. As of April 29,2024, the Washington Commanders have signed Hartman. 

The NFL season is just three months away, and there are still holes in team rosters that need to be filled.