What percentage of drafted players make an NFL roster? (2024)

FAQs

What percentage of drafted players make an NFL roster? ›

Having already been in the select 0.01% of the top 1.6% of the top 7.3% of the nation, the chosen players might be dismayed to learn that only 30% of those drafted will ever make it onto an NFL roster.

Odds are not high you will become a difference maker in the NFL... no matter where you're taken. 1st round - about 50% of players drafted in the 1st round developed into solid NFL starters. 2nd round - about 33% of players drafted in the 2nd round developed into solid NFL starter.

It's an example of the new way teams operate. And in a league where typically close to a third of the players start as undrafted free agents, a shift in how those players are acquired can be significant. In 2020, NFL teams spent $8,787,100 on base salary guarantees for UDFAs. In 2021, teams spent $7.175 million.

0.08% of all high school players will make the NFL.

Furthermore, alongside the 53-man roster, NFL teams are permitted to maintain a practice squad consisting of up to 16 players. Unlike previous years, the 2023 NFL preseason features just one deadline for roster cuts.

The results were eye-opening, albeit not surprising. A whopping 44.4 percent of first-round quarterbacks drafted in those “quarterback rich” classes ended up in the “disappointment” category.

Today, the NFL draft is a televised and ticketed event that sees at least 224 players enter the league each year -- not accounting for additional compensatory picks given to teams for various reasons each year. The current draft structure features seven rounds, but that has been the norm for only the past 30 years.

Steele signed an $87 million, five-year extension with $50 million guaranteed about a week before the season started, jumping to second behind former Dallas quarterback Tony Romo ($55 million) in guaranteed money for undrafted players over the past 20 years, according to ESPN.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Even if a player doesn't get signed for multi-millions in the NFL draft, a player can still make some respectable money. The minimum player salary for rookie in 2023 is $750,000 a year. That league minimum salary is what most unrestricted free agents, or players who don't get drafted, make.

Who is the lowest paid player in the NFL? ›

While Tyrone Swoopes won the reigning title of the lowest-paid NFL player in 2021, looking at the low end of league earners isn't as simple. NFL players face different minimum values that depend on their contract and designation as active or inactive players.

The minimum salary for NFL players with one year of experience is $870,000. It increases with each year: Rookie: $750,000. 1 Year: $870,000.

While the salary may not as lucrative as an NFL contract, practice squad members do get paid a livable wage. The players on the practice squad get a weekly salary set by the league Collective Bargaining Agreement.

A player who is waived (only possible if that player has less than four accrued seasons in the league) will keep their contracts until they have gone through the waiver wire. A player who is released has their contract terminated and becomes a free agent.

Conversation. Listen as a former practice squad player can confirm this is way outside the norm cause typically you don't travel to away games, at home games you're in a suite if you go at all, you never dress or are on the sidelines and they don't even put you in the team picture.

And so only about 8% of draft picks are players that really make much of a difference beyond replacement value, and only about 30% see much playing time or make a significant contribution to the team.

The percentage of college players that makes the NFL is incredibly low. In fact, just 1.6 percent of college players will become a professional in the NFL. So the other 98.4 percent of players in college right now will not have their dream realized.

It should come as little surprise that offensive and defensive linemen are the most heavily drafted players.