The NFL Draft is, for the most part, a cut-and-dry process. The team with the worst record picks first, and the team that wins the Super Bowl picks last in the first round.
Other sports leagues, like the NBA and the NHL, use a lottery system. In the NBA, the top 14 picks in the first round of the draft are determined by a lottery of the teams that did not make the playoffs. Yes, a lottery. Imagine the ping-pong balls rolling around in a hopper and deciding the fate of your favorite team.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that the worse a team plays, the better its odds of drawing a top pick. The top pick in the NBA is a coveted prize; there are not five or six players of the caliber of Cooper Flagg waiting to be drafted. So when the Dallas Mavericks, who had just a 1.6% chance of landing the top spot, got it, fans took to social media to announce the system is rigged.
In a shocking post, NFL analyst Mike Greenberg from ESPN recently shared his video rant on X, stating the NFL needs to adopt the NBA draft lottery.
Mike Greenberg Gets Roasted for Pitching the Way To Fix the NFL
Greenberg announced he’d like to pitch what would be the “highest-rated show in the history of sports television.” He wants the NFL to use the NBA lottery system.
“Football needs a draft lottery. It would be great for the league, it would be great for the fans. Literally everyone would watch it. Imagine the 18 teams that missed the playoffs, and all of the fans, gathered around the television waiting for the ping pong balls to do their thing and the envelopes to open, and Arch Manning is playing the role of Cooper Flagg.”
Immediately, fans took to social media to express their outrage over this idea. You only have to hear that the Washington Wizards, who had a more than 52% chance of landing Flagg, lost out to a team with a much better record to hate it.
One fan responded, “Horrible idea. Why would the NFL copy ANYTHING about the NBA?”
Horrible idea. Why would the NFL copy ANYTHING about the nba???
— joban1143 (@BrowardP)
Warren Sharp, an NFL statistician and analyst, shared how much higher the NFL viewership is over the NBA. It makes no sense to say that basketball is doing everything right while football is doing it all wrong.
yes, the NFL needs to be more like the NBA and have a draft lottery to help increase viewership
what are we even doing here https://t.co/I19oq0wdPK pic.twitter.com/iIJsHOYX77
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball)
Greenberg believes that losing is incentivized in the NFL. While he acknowledges that the league “strives for parity,” it often falls short. To make his point, he cites that 10 teams won less than 30% of their games last year, the most ever. Six of those teams won less than 25%, the most since 1926.
However, another analyst disagrees, saying, “This is a very bad argument. What’s remarkable about the NFL is how little institutional tanking actually takes place, DESPITE the incentive to do so. Teams ROUTINELY win themselves out of draft position late in the year with nothing to play for.”
10 teams did not “throw in the towel” last year. They were just bad.
1. Titans – no QB, no line
2. Browns – no QB, no line
3. Patriots – no line, no weapons
4. Giants – no QB
5. Jags – injuries + terrible coaching job
6. Raiders – no QB, no run game
7. Jets – fired their coach… https://t.co/XzzsNmEdmY— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann)
Just last season, the New York Giants were in a horrible position and expected to tank for draft picks. What did they do? They played arguably their best game of the season in Week 17, beating the Indianapolis Colts 45-33.
I’m so confused why anyone would use this most recent draft lottery as a jumping-off point for an “NFL should do this” take.
The Mavs getting the #1 pick was ass. No one outside of Dallas wanted that outcome. And you’re choosing NOW to say MORE sports should adopt that system? https://t.co/yltMNywDZb
— Brandon Carney (@BenchwarmerBran)
Most fans shared that sentiment, stating that nothing about the most recent NBA Draft instills confidence in NFL fans.
Adding a lottery to the NFL Draft would be the single worst rule change the NFL could make. Not having a lotto drives parity around the league, and tanking simply isn’t a thing in the NFL. Imagine the Giants beat out the Bengals to get Joe Burrow in 2020. Is that really what we… https://t.co/oAO0VzWMX9
— The Paul Farrington Show (@FarringtonShow)
One fan said, “How do you see the reactions to the NBA lottery this past week and go, ‘yeah that makes sense?'”
If Greenberg posted this for engagement, he certainly got it. What he did get was much in the way of support.
