Would the NFL consider increasing the draft to more than 7 rounds? (1 Viewer)

[On The Rocks]

My guess is the NFL won't likely increase the draft to a higher number of rounds - but I have been reading that they expect the highest number of underclassmen to delcare for the draft this year - in part due to the status of the collective bargaining agreement.

Would the NFL increase the number of draft rounds for a single season? Just sort of thinking out loud here...but would it have a positive impact - or a negative impact?

What would it take to make a change for one season or mutiple seasons?

 

[switz]

No, it used to be longer, and they trimmed it.

 

[trader jake]

I'd guess it stays at 7 for a long time. If they change anything I'd bet it's some type of rules for signing undrafted players instead of the current free for all. Adding more rounds would accomplish that but I'm guessing they'll just tweak the signing rules instead.

 

[Ozymandias]

Beyond seven rounds the pickings are slim. Yes, there are nuggets to be found, but most of the teams sign a number of undrafted players after the draft is over. They would continue to do so. It is unlikely to affect the balance of the league, which is why the draft was instituted in the first place.

 

[mbuehner]

How many 7th round picks make rosters? I think it's still too long.

 

[Insomniac]

The number of rounds in the draft is part of the collective bargaining agreement. It's very unlikely the union would agree to a longer draft unless they got something for it. I can't see it being important enough to the owners to give up anything for it.

To get an idea what the 7th round produces I checked on pro-football-reference.com for careers of players drafted in the 7th round from 1995-1999.

There were 224 players selected in round 7.

Only 4 ever made a Pro Bowl (Donald Driver 3, Sean Morey, Byron Chamberlain and Adam Timmerman 1 each)

15 were starters for 5+ years

53 played in 50+ games

24 played in 100+ games (Sean Morey is at 99)

72 never played in a regular season game.

Conclusion -> there's no good reason to have more rounds

 

[mbuehner]

How many undrafted guys did as well or better in the same timeframe?

 

[Insomniac]

How many undrafted guys did as well or better in the same timeframe?

The draft query tool on the site I used doesn't allow a check for undrafted players. (or if it did I can't figure out how to do it)Most of the kickers and punters weren't drafted. My guess is if you look at just position players there are probably more undrafted FAs that meet any standards for success than there are 7th rounders. There are probably a lot of guys that are just as good as some of the guys that get picked in the 7th round that don't get picked.