The 2025 NFL Draft is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated in the annual event’s history. A staple of the football calendar, the draft has only grown in popularity, becoming the mega-scale spectacle it is today.
Now a three-day event, the NFL Draft features a range of activities at the host site, including sponsor activations, photo ops, exclusive merchandise drops, and autograph sessions. Still, with all the hype, the main attraction remains the draft itself.
How Many Rounds Are in the 2025 NFL Draft?
The 2025 NFL Draft, set at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., will feature seven rounds of selections. The draft order follows the league’s standard format — teams pick in reverse order of their combined regular-season and playoff finish.
The 18 non-playoff teams pick first in reverse order of their record. The remaining 14 slots are assigned based on playoff outcomes, with regular-season records serving as tiebreakers.
This year, the Tennessee Titans own the No. 1 overall pick, while the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will pick 32nd.
Historically, the number of rounds in the NFL Draft hasn’t always been the same. The very first draft in 1936 featured just nine rounds. That quickly expanded to 22 by 1938.
The draft continued to grow, peaking at 32 rounds for much of the 1940s. There was a brief drop to 25 rounds in 1949, but it then stabilized at 30 rounds throughout the 1950s.
In the 1960s, the number dropped again — first to 20 rounds, then to 17 in 1967. A bigger shift occurred in 1977 when the format was reduced to 12 rounds, a change that remained in place for the next 15 years.
The NFL draft transitioned to a seven-round format in 1994. The NFL had initially tried an eight-round draft in 1993 before settling on the current seven-round structure in 1994.
Total Number of Picks in the NFL Draft
The total number of picks in the NFL Draft can vary each year due to a few factors. In 2025, there will be 257 total picks spread across 32 teams.
While each of the seven rounds typically includes one selection per team, totaling 224 picks, extra selections are added through compensatory picks. These are awarded based on a team’s losses in free agency and other league formulas.
Additionally, Resolution JC-2A gives teams compensatory picks if they’ve helped develop minority candidates who go on to become head coaches or general managers.
This year, the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, and Detroit Lions will receive those additional third-round selections for developing DeMeco Ryans, Raheem Morris, and Aaron Glenn, respectively. These picks come right after the standard compensatory slots, and follow first-round draft order: San Francisco picks at No. 100, the Rams at No. 101 and the Lions at No. 102.
Since the seven-round format was introduced in 1994, the draft’s basic structure has remained largely unchanged. But the overall pick count has fluctuated. The first NFL Draft had just 81 total picks, while the largest ever came in 1976, when a whopping 487 selections were made.