2018 NFL Draft
The 2018 NFL Draft was the 83rd annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2018 NFL season. The draft was held on April 26–28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and was the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium and the first to be held in Texas, which won out in a fourteen-city bid. In order to be eligible to enter the draft, players must be at least three years removed from high school. The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft was January 15, 2018.
Five quarterbacks were selected in the first round—Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson—the second highest number of first-round quarterback selections after the six selected in 1983. The draft was also the first to have siblings — safety Terrell Edmunds and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds — selected in the opening round of the same draft.
The 2018 NFL Draft was the first of two professional sports drafts to be held in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex during the calendar year, as the Dallas Stars hosted the 2018 NHL Entry Draft a couple months after the NFL draft. This marked the first time that both the NFL and NHL hosted their drafts in the same sports market in a calendar year.
Early entrants
In order to be eligible to enter the draft, players must be at least three years removed from high school. The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft was January 15, 2018.The following is the breakdown of the 256 players selected by position:
- 39 Linebackers
- 33 Wide receivers
- 29 Cornerbacks
- 23 Defensive ends
- 20 Running backs
- 20 Defensive tackles
- 21 Offensive tackles
- 18 Safeties
- 14 Tight ends
- 13 Quarterbacks
- 9 Offensive guards
- 8 Centers
- 4 Punters
- 2 Placekickers
- 2 Fullbacks
- 1 Long snapper
Player selections
Notable undrafted players
Supplemental draft
A supplemental draft was held on July 11, 2018. For each player selected in the supplemental draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season.Trades
In the explanations below, ' indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft, while ' denotes trades that took place during the 2018 draft.;Round one
;Round two
;Round three
;Round four
;Round five
;Round six
;Round seven
Media coverage
Coverage of the draft was broadcast by ESPN and NFL Network, with Fox also simulcasting NFL Network's coverage of the first two rounds of broadcast television. ESPN aired coverage of the last four rounds on ABC. College GameDay broadcast a special edition from outside AT&T Stadium as a pre-show on ESPN, and its panel hosted a secondary broadcast of the first round on ESPN2. ESPN Deportes broadcast coverage in Spanish.Telecasts of the first round across all three broadcasters drew a combined Nielsen overnight household rating of 8.4, and total viewership of 11.214 million, making it the most-watched opening round since 2014. ESPN drew the largest single audience, with 5.336 million viewers, while Fox and NFL Network had a combined viewership of 5.74 million across both channels.
Summary
Selections by college athletic conference
Schools with multiple draft selections
Selections | Schools |
12 | Alabama |
7 | LSU, NC State, Ohio State |
6 | Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Penn State |
5 | Florida, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Washington, Wisconsin |
4 | Auburn, Louisville, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Stanford, Texas, UCF, USC |
3 | Arizona State, Boston College, Clemson, Iowa, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, SMU, Southern Miss, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M |
2 | Arkansas, Boise State, California, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State, South Florida, Temple, Texas Tech, Tulane, Virginia, Wake Forest, Washington State, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan |
Selections by position
Position | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 | Round 7 | Total |
Offense | 17 | 18 | 14 | 19 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 120 |
Defense | 15 | 14 | 22 | 18 | 19 | 24 | 17 | 129 |
Special teams | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 |