CNN
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Welcome to Trendlines, your weekly installment of what’s trending up and what’s trending down in sports.
Let’s talk about the media landscape for a second. Media is fractured in ways it hasn’t been since before radio. You have a million different things you can watch or follow at any given time.
That’s what makes the NFL so incredible. Not only do millions tune in to watch their team’s games, and also nationally televised games of other teams … but even their draft has become a primetime event.
Many are going to sit around this over the draft’s three days to watch players they’ve never heard of before get selected out of college to join an NFL franchise.
And so, on a weekend where college kids wearing suits and taking photos while holding up new jerseys will steal thunder from the NBA playoffs, pretty much everything is trending up for the NFL draft.
Trending Up:
Draft viewership: Up 7.6 million from 2007
When I say millions of people watch the draft, I mean many millions. Last year, more than 12 million people watched the first night of the NFL draft. It was higher rated than the series finale of the CBS hit “Young Sheldon.”
It didn’t used to be that way. When the NFL first started tracking the number of viewers (not just households) in 2007, fewer than 5 million tuned into the first day of the NFL draft.
Even the final day of the draft (featuring the final rounds) managed to pull in nearly 3 million viewers last year. The opening round of the NHL playoffs are averaging less than a million this season.
More than 53 million people watched some portion of the draft in total. Woof. Quite an achievement given the NFL draft was only first broadcast in 1980.
Trending Up:
Pick #1’s salary: Up 86% from 2007
It’s not just viewership that is up: It’s the salaries too.
NFL rookie salaries are dictated by a wage scale – first implemented in 2011 as part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
The top pick in the draft gets paid handsomely. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick, quarterback Caleb Williams, pulls in nearly an average of $10 million in guaranteed salary per year from the Chicago Bears on his rookie contract, according to Spotrac, a website that tracks player contracts.
The salary for Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick this year, is projected to have a contract worth more than Williams.
Back in 2007, before the wage scale was in place, quarterback JaMarcus Russell yanked in a little more than $5 million per year in guaranteed salary from the then-Oakland Raiders.
Still, I think the argument could be made that the Bears got a steal. The top average NFL quarterbacks this year rake in more than $50 million. It was closer to $10 million in 2007. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott makes, on average, $60 million per year!
This means the salary gap between getting a top quarterback in the draft and what he will make down the line has grown exponentially.
Trending Up:
Days on TV: Up 1 since 2007
Perhaps there is no bigger sign that the draft is a big deal than its length. The draft used to be just two days.
Then in 2010, the NFL got the idea to give the first round its own day. You can’t argue with the results in terms of ratings. Of course, it’s a bit crazy that something as seemingly mundane as the draft gets televised over three days.
This means we now have to wait a whole extra day to find out who the final pick (dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant”) is.
Yet, I’ll find myself watching at least a little portion of the draft.