NFL Draft Rules 2019: How Long Is It? How Many Rounds?

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By Jonathan Adams

Updated Apr 25, 2019 at 4:01pm

Getty The seven rounds of the NFL draft span over three days.

How long is the 2019 NFL draft? The NFL draft has seven rounds and lasts for three days. The draft starts on Thursday, April 25 through April 27. The first day of the draft only features the first round and is expected to run from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern. While the first round is projected to last three and a half hours, it has been known to run over.

The second round is scheduled to go four and a half hours from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The longest day of the draft is, by far, Saturday, April 27. The draft will run from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. as rounds four through seven are completed. This is double the amount of time it takes for the first round, but the NFL will finish three rounds instead of just the one round on opening night.

The time between picks depends on the draft round, and the time decreases as the draft goes on. There is 10 minutes between picks in the first round. The second round has seven minutes between picks, the third through sixth round has five minutes between picks. Finally, there are four minutes between picks in the seventh round.

The Time Between Picks Starts at 10 Minutes & Moves Down to 4 Minutes By the End of the Draft

Teams are not required to use the entire clock, and the time resets for the next team once the pick is announced. If a team does not make their pick in time, they risk being jumped by the team behind them as NFL.com detailed.

If a team lets its time expire without making a choice, it can make a selection later — but it runs the risk of letting the next team on the clock take the player it was considering.

Every team has a table set up at the draft venue, where team representatives stay in constant contact with executives at each club’s headquarters. When a team decides on a selection, it communicates the player’s name from its draft room to its representatives at Selection Square. The team representative then writes the player’s name, position and school on a card and submits it to an NFL staff member known as a runner.

The NFL draft order is based on a team’s record the previous season in addition to any picks that have been sent to another team in a trade. This year, the draft is being broadcast on three channels simultaneously: ABC, ESPN and NFL Network. Disney owns ABC and ESPN but the two channels will show different angles of the draft.

“Each broadcast will be unique,” ESPN vice president of event and studio production Seth Markman explained to The Athletic. “The star of the draft is still the draft itself and that is what we have to make sure we do. On Thursday night, you will still hear every team’s pick live on both networks. What we are really working on is what happens before and after that announcement and giving the viewer a choice not only on the talent on each show but also the content around it.”

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Jonathan Adams is a veteran sports contributor covering the NFL, NBA and golf for Heavy.com. His work has been prominently featured on NFL.com, Yahoo Sports, Pro Football Talk, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated. More about Jonathan Adams

Published Apr 25, 2019 at 4:00pm

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