NFL Draft 2011: 25 Players In Attendance At Radio City Music Hall

There will be a record 25 players at the 2011 NFL draft, the league announced on Monday.

The NFL previously invited only a few of the top players but in recent years has started increasing that number to the point where we now have a whopping 25 players going to the draft.

Those players are: Prince Amukamara, Akeem Ayers, Adrian Clayborn, Randall Cobb, Marcell Dareus, Nick Fairley, Blaine Gabbert, A.J. Green, Mark Herzlich, Mark Ingram, Julio Jones, Cameron Jordan, Von Miller, Rahim Moore, Cam Newton, Patrick Peterson, Mike Pouncey, Aldon Smith, Tyron Smith, Phil Taylor, Danny Watkins, J.J. Watt, Corey Liuget, Ryan Kerrigan and Ryan Williams.

The players that the NFL used to have attend the draft were those expecting to be top picks but that’s not the case this year. I can pick out a number of players from this list who are more likely to be second round (or later) picks including Cobb, Herzlich and Watkins.

The other interesting dynamic of the players attending the draft this year is the report last month that the NFLPA was asking its players not to attend the draft. The NFLPA has since clarified that they’re not asking players not to attend, but will instead host their own set of events during draft week that won’t conflict with the actual draft. Just another interesting tweak to the draft, thanks to the lockout.