‘It’s like Christmas’: How the NFL Draft became its most exciting and crucial day of the year

The dust has long since settled since the Super Bowl, with the Seattle Seahawks sitting pretty at the top of the NFL. But on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, tension will subside, and the hopes and dreams of players, coaches, and fanbases will be pinned to the decisions based on thousands and thousands of hours, with hundreds of minds coming together in a bid to predict the future. The preparation has been laborious, starting back in August, and now the process of beginning, or applying the finishing touches to, a project close to that of Seattle will begin – even if mastering the process continues to elude even the brightest of football minds. That uncertainty, the furious debate and contrasting predictions make for a content machine in the NFL, a league that, despite only having 17 regular season games, dominates almost every day of the USA’s sporting calendar, despite its rival leagues taking to the field with far greater regularity.“Besides maybe getting married to my wife, it’s the most exciting day of the year every year,” Rick Spielman, the former Minnesota Vikings general manager and now senior advisor with the New York Jets, tells the Independent. “Don't tell my wife that though! I like our anniversary, but there is nothing like the draft, it’s amazing.” Spielman has his fingerprints on a number of decisions that changed lives: legendary running back Adrian Peterson was plucked with the seventh overall pick in 2007, and, as GM by that stage, in 2020, he gleefully seized the opportunity at 22nd overall to select Justin Jefferson, now considered by some the very best wide receiver in the league.David Bailey of the Texas Tech participates at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine (Getty)The dilemma is always thus: how much risk is a team willing to take? Are you aiming to land a superstar? or can expert coaching and a collection of very good players, on valuable first-time contracts, prove sufficient enough to contend for the Lombardi trophy?“The players get 17 games, but as a general manager, you only get one game [the draft], this is it.” Spielman outlines. “That's why it's so exciting. This process starts back in August, when the scouts are starting to hit the road and going to visit their colleges, all this information that is gathered between now and then, you get one shot at this thing.“All the teams’ boards are set at the start of draft week. So now it's just going through different scenarios, who's going to fall, who may not fall, going through a lot of strategic thinking. “Really, it's like we’ve seen thousands of games by this point. It’s not going to change if we look one more time.“Most general managers know that front part of the board inside and out, the first three rounds. But on Saturday, that's the scouts’ day. That’s where you find hidden gems. [Jets GM] Darren Mougey is doing doing this, spending a lot of time on that backboard and guys we want to target in rounds four through seven, or a college free agent at the end of the draft.” The Jets have meteoric expectations. With the Las Vegas Raiders all but certain to grab quarterback Fernando Mendoza, fresh from guiding Indiana to an improbable national championship, New York’s pick at two is the real start of the draft. Texas Tech edge David Bailey and Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese are both in contention. And with 16th and 33rd overall as well, Jets fans will be drooling at the prospect of fresh talent injecting life into one of the league’s most listless franchises in recent years.Rick Spielman during his time as Minnesota Vikings general manager (Getty)At the opposite end of the board waits Seattle, and it will be a long wait, perhaps several hours before their turn with the last pick of the night at 32. Brimming with confidence after a dominant victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl 60, defensive coordinator Aden Durde, returning despite head coach interviews with the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons, has been integral to the process. The Seahawks are determined to remain at the top of the league for years to come, and an effective strategy in the draft remains pivotal to those hopes.“We finished the Super Bowl and had a week off, but then there was the Combine and Klint Kubiak went to the Raiders, so I was lucky enough to be part of the interviews for the offensive coordinator,” Durde tells the Independent. “You then start to watch players, even when I went away to Santa Barbara, not only college players, but there’s free agency, so you're just watching free agents at the same time. So there's a lot of work to be done.“You have to watch the player in different phases of the game. What traits do you need in that position? And what’s their X Factor?”The legacy of the draft can also stick with coaches and executives, too, with the high-risk picks or trades mid-draft, likely to be scrutinised for years to come.Adrian Peterson became a legend for the Vikings after being drafted seventh overall (Getty Images)“The Adrian Peterson situation, where we had an opportunity to move up, we decided to stay there and see if he would fall to us,” Spielman recalls.“But there were teams in front of us that threatened to take him. That might have been my only draft in Minnesota, because the owners were sitting right next to me, asking, ‘are you sure you know what you're doing?’ I had to say, ‘oh, yeah, I got this’. But on the inside, you're like, if this goes wrong, ‘God, I may have to go and tell my wife I'm getting fired’.“But this is kind of like Christmas for the GM, he can make or break his reputation; become the hero, almost, despite the players having all the adulation on the field. If he gets this right, then he'll become a hero in New York. In my time, I was a hero some years and a goat some years.”NFL Draft 2026 - first round order Round 11. Las Vegas Raiders2. New York Jets3. Arizona Cardinals4. Tennessee Titans5. New York Giants6. Cleveland Browns7. Washington Commanders8. New Orleans Saints9. Kansas City Chiefs10. Cincinnati Bengals11. Miami Dolphins12. Dallas Cowboys13. Los Angeles Rams (from Falcons)14. Baltimore Ravens15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers16. New York Jets (from Colts)17. Detroit Lions18. Minnesota Vikings19. Carolina Panthers20. Dallas Cowboys (from Packers)21. Pittsburgh Steelers22. Los Angeles Chargers23. Philadelphia Eagles24. Cleveland Browns (from Jaguars)25. Chicago Bears26. Buffalo Bills27. San Francisco 49ers28. Houston Texans29. Kansas City Chiefs (from Rams)30. Miami Dolphins (from Broncos)31. New England Patriots32. Seattle SeahawksThe NFL Draft 2026 takes place from 23-25 April, with the first round beginning at 1am BST on Friday