Why this year's NFL Draft could draw a huge audience: ‘Hope is off the charts'

New York Times

23-04-2025

The NFL Draft is a television show at its core. Occasionally, it provides chaos, shocks, and surprises, especially if a high-profile prospect 'Manziels' his way down the first round.
But it also holds the promise of possibility.
'It's the ultimate reality show meets awards show meets hope for 32 teams,' said Charlie Yook, the executive producer of NFL Media and the point person for the NFL Network's draft coverage. 'That one player, that one pick, whether it's at No. 1 or Mr. Irrelevant, can actually change and alter what a franchise becomes.'
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But this year, at least upon this writing, ESPN and the NFL Network executives have been gifted something unique: All 32 teams still own their first-round draft picks.
According to NFL research, if this holds up, it will be the first time since 2014 that no first-round selections in the upcoming draft were moved between the start of the league year and the first night of the draft. What this means, as far as television purposes, is that every team's fan base has a reason to watch Round 1.
'That is a massive, massive plus for us as we sit here right now because hope is off the charts,' said ESPN executive producer Seth Markman, the point person for the network's coverage of the NFL Draft since 2010.
We will get to network specifics below, but the broad strokes information is the 2025 NFL Draft will be televised nationally by ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes and the NFL Network.
Round 1: Thursday, April 24
8 p.m. ET
ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, NFL Network
Rounds 2-3: Friday, April 25
7 p.m. ET
ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, NFL Network
Rounds 4-7: Saturday, April 26
Noon ET
ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, NFL Network
Live audio coverage:
SiriusXM NFL Radio (Rounds 1-7)
ESPN Radio (Rounds 1-7)
Westwood One (Round 1)
Both Markman and Yook say Green Bay, the site of this year's draft, will be a major character on their telecasts. Expect a lot of shots of Lambeau Field and tributes to the Packers of yore.
'Call it what you want — holy land, a mecca, a cathedral — it's an iconic place,' Yook said. 'It's Yankee Stadium, it's Fenway Park, it's Wrigley Field. It will be a big part of what we do. It's a character in our production and in our broadcast.'
There will be 16 players in the 'green room' in Green Bay and an additional 24 prospects who have remote cameras that both ESPN and NFL Network will have access to when they are selected. Both Markman and Yook said they expect this draft will have certain tipping points where chaos could ensue.
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'There's a quarterback in this draft (Shedeur Sanders) that could be very parallel to what happened to Aaron Rodgers, what happened to Brady Quinn, what happened to Johnny Manziel,' Yook said. 'We don't know where he's gonna land. Is a team gonna move up to get him? We've all identified universally what those tipping points are. The Giants at No. 3, the Panthers at No. 8 come into play if someone wants a particular quarterback to move in front of the Saints at No. 9. Trades are something that brings an energy and a juice for all the broadcasts to the fans watching at home.'
For those following the NFL Draft on social media, ESPN and NFL Network staffers will once again not tip picks ahead of the broadcast. Obviously, those who work for non-broadcast partners of the NFL will do so. I asked Markman how he saw this.
'The tipping picks thing, it doesn't take that much skill for a reporter nowadays to find out who's being drafted ahead of the TV broadcast,' Markman said. 'Just so people know, the teams make their picks before they're announced by the commissioner. All the other teams in the league have to find out who that pick is so they can proceed with the draft. It only takes one person in one building around the NFL to text a reporter what the pick is and they can then tweet it out. We've seen that happening over the last couple years. We're not going to do that.
'We've said it over and over again that our fans constantly have told us they want to hear from the commissioner. It's not like our people can't be on Twitter during the draft. They just can't report the picks before they're announced. They should be engaging and providing perspective. But I'll tell you: Those people that are tipping picks, they're not Edward R. Murrow Award-winning reporters for getting scoops.'
Last year, the first round of the NFL Draft had its best audience in three years as the combined broadcasts averaged around 12 million viewers. That was the most-watched first round of the draft since 2021 (12.5 million). The most-watched opening round came in 2020 when sports shut down due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That draft — a QB-loaded opening round with Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert and Jordan Love — drew a whopping 15.26 million viewers.
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Below, a quick breakdown of the broadcasts:
This is the 19th year the NFL Network will provide live on-location coverage of the draft. The future of NFL Media remains in limbo with continued reports that the league is looking to sell NFL Network along with other NFL Media products. How a potential sale would impact NFL Network's coverage of the NFL Draft remains unclear, but there is financial value in keeping NFL Network's draft coverage, so I'd bet it continues even if it moves beyond league ownership.
But that's in the future. This year, the NFL Network's first-round coverage features the longest-tenured current NFL Draft host, Rich Eisen, alongside analysts Daniel Jeremiah, Charles Davis, Joel Klatt, Kurt Warner and Ian Rapoport. Jamie Erdahl interviews the draftees on stage following their selection. The Rounds 2 and 3 main desk is the same as opening night.
Rounds 4-7 on NFL Network get scaled down a bit with Eisen, Jeremiah and Davis on the main set and Rapoport on a theater set. The NFL Channel — the NFL's free ad-supported streaming offering — has Mike Yam, Bucky Brooks and Lance Zierlein as the on-air hosts.
Yook said the NFL Network has footage of 630 prospects and 1,200 highlight tapes in total. This is often a great benefit in the later rounds. Every year, this space lists the names of those staffers who work on the highlight tapes because these are behind-the-scenes people who grind for months to bring viewers insight into the picks.
They include lead college and draft tape senior producer Zach Arnstein, production assistant Bryan Valladares, segment producers Ben Fennell, Chris Jenkins, and Nick Shepro, editors Andrew Moussa, Chris Guanzon, Andrew Promey, Todd Jensen, Paul Fox, Nick Stewart, Jose Guzman, Jeff Levitt, Brandon Gambino, and Tye Giddens, and associate producers Aaron Housenga and Marcus Davis.
'These guys have been working on tapes since January,' Yook said. 'We want to make sure there's a reason why we're airing any of these tapes so there's a story being told, whether it's in 20 or 40 seconds. If you're a fan of the team, the player drafted, or an opposing fan, you can get a glimpse of what that club is getting in that player.'
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The NFL Network usually has a ton of reporters at league sites, and this year is no exception. That list includes Judy Battista (Giants), Stacey Dales (Bears), Jane Slater (Saints), Sara Walsh (Titans) and Cameron Wolfe (Browns). Mike Garafolo, Omar Ruiz and Steve Wyche will be at the NFL Network studio in Los Angeles.
This is ESPN's 46th consecutive year of broadcasting the NFL Draft — here's a piece I did in 2020 on ESPN's first-ever NFL Draft broadcast, if interested — and the definitive signature of the company's coverage is tonnage. ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Radio, and ESPN Deportes will provide 14 hours of coverage, in addition to an army of social media folks.
Each first-round broadcast has a specific focus. ESPN coverage is specific to the pick's impact on the NFL team and the selection's on-field performance. The on-air group for ESPN's coverage includes host Mike Greenberg and analysts Mel Kiper Jr., Booger McFarland and Louis Riddick. Adam Schefter serves as an on-air reporter. Molly McGrath will interview prospects from the main NFL Draft stage following their selection.
ABC's presentation, now in its seventh year, will emphasize the players' college experience and the draftees' road to the draft. Rece Davis serves as the host. The analysts are Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban and Desmond Howard. Field Yates and Laura Rutledge will be in the green room for family interviews. College football insider Pete Thamel is also part of the coverage. In addition to linear coverage, The Pat McAfee Show Draft Spectacular will air across YouTube, TikTok, the ESPN App and stream on ESPN+.
'Adding Nick Saban last year was spectacular and we expect the same,' Markman said. 'From what I am hearing from him and how he sees some of the players at the top of the draft, if he was able to do a mock draft, it would not look like anybody else's mock draft.'
Rounds 2-3 will air on ESPN and ABC beginning at 7 p.m. ET. The Saturday coverage of Rounds 4-7 begins at noon ET on ESPN and will also simulcast on ABC. The on-set talent for Rounds 4-7 includes Davis, Kiper Jr., Riddick and Yates, along with NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller and insider Peter Schrager.
ESPN always has reporters assigned to team facilities with picks high in the draft. They include Jeff Darlington (Titans), Jeremy Fowler (Browns), Sal Paolantonio (Giants), Mike Reiss (Patriots) and Lindsey Thiry (Saints).
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ESPN Deportes will deliver exclusive Spanish-language coverage featuring on-air talent Eduardo Varela, Pablo Viruega, Sebastián M. Christensen, Miguel Pasquel and M.J. Acosta-Ruiz.
Markman said the ESPN/ABC production has 700 highlight packages available. The massive behind-the-scenes group that put those highlights together includes staffers Christine Taylor, Stephen Cabrera, Chris Kourtzidis, Eric Robinson, Tristan Perez, Katt Hoover, Matt Tomer, Corey Picard, Eric Feinstein, Melissa Braun, Matt Brooks, Adam Bauer, Corey Taylor, Jeremy Drummond, Mikell Harvey. Eric Sellers, Steven Kim, Andrew McConville, Caitlyn Logsdon, Cliff Chartrand, Ryan Beckman, Luke Strnad, Nick Gonya, Dan Lagnado, Taylor Pugliese, Brooklyn Vaughan, Sania Blu, Kris Schwartz, Ethan Gaines and Harry Hawkings.
'The NFL Draft is my favorite thing I do,' Markman said. 'There's a lot of people in Bristol that feel the same way. This is a little inside baseball, but we have some people that work on live events and some people that work on studio shows who work separately for most of the year. The NFL Draft is the one event we do at ESPN where those people all work together. You can have someone that works in the truck for Monday Night Football, the control room on Sunday NFL Countdown and part of the staff of College GameDay all coming together for this.'