NFL Draft Schedule 2016: Order Is Set, Day One Of Schedule Ready To Go
The NFL Draft schedule for 2016 is about to begin. The first round of the 2016 NFL Draft begins Thursday, April 28, and the Los Angeles Rams are already on the clock. The updated NFL Draft order has been posted on NFL.com, reflecting several big changes that have taken place in recent weeks. The order can still shift if trades are made, as the NFL allows picks to be dealt at any point leading up to and during the seven rounds of the draft.
As explained by the rules laid out by the NFL, the order of selection is determined by the reverse order of finish in the previous season. This gives the team with the worst record the first overall selection and the Super Bowl winner gets the final pick of the round. The Tennessee Titans were awarded the first pick, with the Denver Broncos sliding in at No. 32. The New England Patriots would have had the No. 29 selection of the first round, but the commissioner took it away as punishment for the “Deflategate” controversy. Every pick after that will then simply move up a spot.
The Titans traded that first overall pick to the Los Angeles Rams as part of a bigger deal that netted the Titans more selections later in the draft. The Cleveland Browns, former owners of the No. 2 overall pick, then traded that selection to the Philadelphia Eagles for a similar package of picks. If shifted how the NFL Draft order looks, which could lead to several surprises in the early selections. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Rams are expected to draft quarterback Jared Goff, and the Eagles are expected to draft quarterback Carson Wentz.
The official 2016 NFL Draft begins at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 28. On the first day of the draft, only the first round of picks will be made. Each team gets 10 minutes to make that selection, with nearly every franchise expected to take the full amount of time. While the Los Angeles Rams have been mulling over the selection for months, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will officially announce that the Rams are “on the clock” to start things out. ESPN and the NFL Network will provide live television coverage.
The second and third rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft will take place on Friday, April 29. The event will kick off at 7 p.m. ET, with ESPN and the NFL Network providing TV coverage again. They will also provide coverage through the respective internet apps of each network. Then at 8 p.m. ET, the TV coverage will move over to ESPN2. During the second and third rounds of the draft, teams will have seven minutes to make each selection.
Rounds four through seven will take place on the third day of the NFL Draft (Saturday, April 30). The NFL Draft schedule switches to an earlier time on Saturday, with coverage beginning at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN, the NFL Network, and through the online apps. For rounds four through six, teams will be given five minutes for each pick, and then in round seven, teams will get just four minutes per pick.
The NFL.com online application will break down everything for the entire 2016 NFL Draft as it unfolds. As players are selected, it will feed into the grid and show all players that have been selected by each team, as well as where those players attended college. It also gives a breakdown of all seven rounds of the draft, depicting where compensation picks and traded picks have been slotted in the order. The 2016 NFL Draft gets started at 8 p.m. ET on April 28 and will come to a close late on April 30 once all 253 selections have been made by the 32 NFL teams.
[Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images]
