This year NFL draft It is in the target to achieve a first.
Except for a last minute exchange, each team will enter the draft with its original first round selection for the first time in the era of the common draft that began in 1967.
That is in a marked contrast with recent years when the teams were much more willing to change or exchange first round selections, with an average of more than seven teams by entering the last five drafts without their original first round selections. That reached its maximum point in 2022 when 11 teams entered the day of the draft without their own first round selection thanks in part to previous agreements for players such as Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, Trey Lance, Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams.
The closest to the league has come in the effectiveness of the common draft with each team with its own first round selection, according to an ESPN investigation, it arrived in 1993 when Kansas City addressed its first round to San Francisco for Joe Montana five days before the draft.
It is unlikely that static teams maintain the first round on Thursday night, since the equipment is likely to make movements up or down the board, depending on which players are available. Last year there were five draft operations that involved first round selections that saw that the selections changed their hands eight times.
It seems that a quarterback will once again be taken in the draft, with the chances of Cam Ward going to No. 1 to Tennessee greater than 99%, according to the latest probabilities of Betmgm Sportsbook.
That would mark the seventh time in eight years that a QB was first, with Jacksonville’s choice of Travon Walker in 2022 as the only exception. That has been part of a long trend since the NFL has prioritized the passage. Quarterbacks have been taken first in general in 20 of the previous 27 drafts.
But that was not always the case.
Drew Bledsoe (1993 to New England) was the only 1991-97 field marshal, and there was a period of 11 years from 1972 to 82 that only had one QB with the selection No. 1: Steve Bartkowski to Atlanta in 1975.
Almost all teams have fired in a first -round field marshal in recent years, but the team with the longest drought could break it on Thursday.
Nueva Orleans has not recruited a quarterback with its first round selection in the common draft since it took Archie Manning in 1971, but could break that streak this year given the uncertainty that surrounds Derek Carr’s state.
The only other teams that have not recruited a QB in the first round in the last 15 drafts are The Cowboys (1989), Seahawks (1993), Raiders (2007) and Lions (2009).
Tennessee’s Titans They are ready to choose first in the draft for the first time since the franchise took Earl Campbell in 1978 when the team was known as the Houston Oilers.
The Titans exchanged the best selection in 2016 to the Rams, but now they have a chance, marking the seventh time that the superior selection has gone to an AFC South team since the beginning of the era of eight divisions in 2002.
The AFC South will be the first division in that period with each team making the number 1 team, and Houston has done it three times since 2002, Jacksonville twice and Indianapolis once.
The next on the list is the AFC North, where Cleveland and Cincinnati have had the best selection twice, and the NFC West, with the Rams with the best selection twice and Arizona and San Francisco once each since 2002.
The AFC West and NFC South have made the best selection three times in that period, with the NFC North doing it twice and the AFC East did once.
The only division that has not been the best choice since 2002 is the NFC EAST, although that comes with a small warning. In 2004, the Chargers selected Eli Manning first in general, but they changed it during the draft to the New York giants. The last time a team in the NFC East made the number 1 team was in 1991, when Dallas recruited Russell Maryland.
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