Barring A Last-minute Trade, Every Team Will Enter The Nfl Draft With Its 1st-round Pick

This year's NFL draft is on target to achieve a first.

Barring a last-minute trade, every team will go into the draft with its original first-round pick for the first time in the common draft era that began in 1967.

That's in stark contrast to recent years when teams were much more willing to trade away or swap first-round picks, with an average of more than seven teams entering the last five drafts without their original first-round picks. That peaked in 2022 when 11 teams entered draft day without their own first-round pick thanks in part to previous deals for players like Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, Trey Lance, Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams.

The closest the league has come in the common draft era with every team holding its own first-round pick, according to research by ESPN, came in 1993 when Kansas City dealt its first-rounder to San Francisco for Joe Montana five days before the draft.

The static picks are unlikely to hold through the first round on Thursday night as teams are likely to make moves up or down the board depending on which players are available. Just last year there were five draft-day trades involving first-round picks that saw picks change hands eight times.