2015 NFL draft


The 2015 NFL draft was the 80th annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible football players. It took place in Chicago at the Auditorium Theatre and in Grant Park, from April 30 to May 2. This was the first NFL draft held outside New York City in fifty years. The 2015 NFL draft was the first to feature a companion outdoor fair, where fans would be able to see the Commissioner during the selection on the Auditorium Theatre stage from across the street in the park; this area was called Draft Town. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers held the right to select first because they had the league's worst record in the previous season, and they used it to select the football team|2013] Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston out of Florida State. The Arizona Cardinals made the final pick in the draft, commonly called Mr. Irrelevant.
One of the major storylines approaching the NFL draft was the competition between the previous two Heisman Trophy winners, Jameis Winston winning the award in 2013 and Marcus Mariota in 2014. Both were considered excellent prospects and had the potential to become the first overall draft selection. Winston was considered to be a more polished pocket passer and pro-style quarterback, but had several off-the-field issues while playing at Florida State, ranging from a sexual assault allegation to shoplifting incidents. Mariota was considered a better athlete, the fastest quarterback in the draft, and had a better off-the-field reputation. However, Mariota ran a spread offense at Oregon which typically had not transitioned well from college to the NFL. Although neither was considered a perfectly safe pick, the two quarterbacks were selected first and second overall. This was only the sixth time in NFL history that this has occurred. It was also the first time that two Heisman trophy winners were selected with the first two overall picks. All 22 running backs selected no longer play for their original team or have already retired.
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Event logistics

Prior to 2015, despite having become a major annual television event for the NFL, drafts had only been held with a limited and relatively-small in-person attendance, and had since 1965 been held exclusively in New York City.
After the management of the event's longtime venue, Radio [City Music Hall], had forced the league to postpone their 2014 draft due to a scheduling conflict at the venue, the NFL grew frustrated with the venue and decided to open-up bidding for a new site to host its 2015 draft. The league asked for bids not only to include a venue for the draft itself, but to also present an adjacent venue in which the league could host host a fan festival. The league received interest from twelve possible host cities, but zeroed in on bids from Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. New York City was proposing potentially keeping the event at Radio City Music Hall or moving it to another venue such as Madison Square Garden. Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden both shared the same ownership –MSG. The NFL quickly narrowed their selection further to either Chicago or Los Angeles.
Among the venues proposed in Chicago included the Chicago Theatre, Soldier Field, and McCormick Place. Among the venues proposed in the Los Angeles metro area included The Forum, Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live, Dolby Theatre, TCL Chinese Theatre, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In October 2014, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the city of Chicago would host the draft at the Auditorium Theatre, with parts of Grant Park to be the location of a fan fest.
In organizing the event, Chicago reimagined the draft into a much larger event than it previously had been and made it accessible for the first time to a large public attendance. Across the street from the Auditorium Theatre in Grant Park, a large free-admission multi-day fan festival dubbed "Draft Town" was erected. The festival that drew 200,000 visitors. Within the grounds of the festival, fans could watch live footage of the first three rounds draft from within the festival. While the first three rounds of the draft still took place inside an indoor venue, the final round of the draft were held outdoors before an open-admittance crowd in an area of the festival dubbed "Selection Square". Subsequent drafts have retained the large-scale attendance and festivities pioneered for the 2015 draft.

Timing changes

Shortly before the draft, the NFL shortened the amount of time for certain selections to be made. The time for seventh-round selections was reduced from five minutes to four minutes; similarly, the time for all compensatory selections, which cannot be traded, was reduced from seven minutes to four minutes.

Early entrants

Seventy-four underclassmen announced their intention to forgo their remaining NCAA eligibility and declare themselves available to be selected in the draft. An additional ten players who graduated but were still eligible to play college football chose to enter the draft, bringing to 84 the total number of players who chose to forgo college eligibility to enter the draft.

Overview

The following is the breakdown of the 256 players selected by position:

Selection order

The draft order is based generally on each team's record from the previous season, with teams which qualified for the postseason selecting after those which failed to make the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans each finished with league-worst. The Buccaneers were awarded the first pick in round one due to having a worse strength of schedule. The selection order for subsequent rounds follows the order of the first round, except that teams with the similar records rotate selections round-by-round.
In addition to the seven picks each team is given, the league allocated thirty-two supplemental picks at the ends of round 3 through 7, for a total of 256 picks. The supplemental picks are awarded to teams who had net losses of free agent talent from the previous year.

Supplemental draft

A supplemental draft was held on July 9, 2015. For each player selected in the supplemental draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season. Seven players were available, but only one was selected.

Trades

In the explanations below, ' indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft, while ' denotes trades that took place during the 2015 draft.
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Summary

Selections by position

PositionRound 1Round 2Round 3Round 4Round 5Round 6Round 7Total
Offense17122021191723129
Defense15201516192416125
Special teams00002002