Why we love the NFL Draft

We get it.

The NFL’s constant march into every corner of our lives almost feels intrusive. Games on almost every single day of the week. Games on Thanksgiving, on Christmas, on Friday nights, Saturday nights, and probably pretty soon, Tuesday mornings if the ratings are good enough. There is a week in the middle of May dedicated to the release of the schedule, even when we know what teams are playing each other as soon as the season ends thanks to the league’s schedule formula.

Then there is the NFL Draft.

While the season itself runs from September until February, the NFL Draft has become a year-round event. As soon as one ends, the next one begins, starting with the “Way Too Early” mock drafts that drop the moment a draft ends, through the summer scouting season, into the actual college football season, then bowl games, mock drafts, All Star games, the Combine, more mock drafts, and then another draft happens.

And the cycle repeats.

Yet, even with all of that, there is beauty in the NFL Draft, and a reason to love it, flaws and all.

Here are ours.

Being a sports fan teaches you hope.

“There’s always next year” is a common mantra among sports fans. As a child growing up in Massachusetts, with the chorus of “1918” ringing in his ears every winter thanks to my grandfather’s season tickets to the Boston Red Sox, clinging to the hope of next year was what often got us through the winter. The next big signing, the next big trade, the next player to come up through the minors that can perhaps change the course of a franchise.

The beauty of the NFL Draft is that every year is next year. Every year is pure, packaged, manufactured hope. The hope that a 7-10 season becomes a 10-7 season with a deep playoff run if they just get the picks right over three nights in April. Months of watching college prospects, learning everything about them, and working through mock draft scenarios convince fans of all 32 teams that futility will be gone, and success will arrive, thanks to those three nights in April.

The league knows this, and leans into it. Wall-to-wall coverage of the Scouting Combine, Pro Days, mock drafts, and the like help sell the hope package, giving fans of all 32 teams a reason to believe.

And if they do not get it right over those three nights in April.

There’s always next year.

There are a few things in life that are just universal experiences. While not everyone might like the NFL draft (or the NFL in general), the experience of processing “What if?” and “What could be?” is one everyone has. When focused on the positives, processing multiple outcomes from a single event can lead a person down so many paths of joy and excitement.

Heck, Marvel has capitalized on the concept with their popular animated series simply called “What If...?”

The NFL draft provides almost an unending supply of that experience. An experience that many had while reading choose-your-own-adventure books as a child. For those who are too young or have never had the joy of reading those books, as a reader, you would come to multiple crossroads where you would decide what happens next and turn to the corresponding page:

Some of the simpler books would have just two pathways with a couple of options after you turned to page 33 or 45. Others, like the NFL draft, provide you a labyrinth of options that can keep you engrossed in the story for months instead of days. This is a rough visual of one of those books:

As a Cleveland Browns fan and Producer at SB Nation’s Dawg By Nature site, not only has the NFL draft helped provide me hope, as Mark describes above, but also hundreds of paths toward that hope. This year, for example, it might be all but certain that WR/CB Travis Hunter will be the second overall pick, but how could the Browns also get their quarterback of the future? Will they add more weapons with their five picks in the Top 105? Could someone offer them a huge haul to move out of the second pick?

After a 3-14 season, Browns fans need hope and the NFL draft, along with the ramp-up to it, provides them months of opportunities and hundreds of paths to achieve that hope.

What is better than that for the human condition in 2025? Not much, that is for sure!

Sure it’s been dulled by college players actually making their worth through NIL payments, but there’s still something magical about seeing all those years of hard work pay off for players. These are athletes who have sunk over 50 percent of their life into football before they get to the NFL Draft, and seeing them celebrate with their families and friends, knowing their lives have been changed forever is just amazing.

Stories of beating the odds and succeeding are littered throughout the NFL Draft — look no further than Xavier Legette, who was drafted in the first round by the Carolina Panthers last year. Here’s a guy who lost his mother in high school, his father in college — who channeled his grief and energy into football. A small town, country-bred guy who grew up in South Carolina, signed with the University of South Carolina, now he’s staying in Carolina to play in the NFL, and he’s hyped because his grandmother will get to see him play.

The millions of dollars and financial security are one thing, but to a lot of guys this is the culmination of all their work and effort. A sign their commitment paid off. Some will soar in the NFL, others won’t — but the draft is still one of the few places we get to see people win at life who weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

In a world where it’s too easy to become cynical it’s nice to have something to genuinely feel good about.