Some NFL draft questions?

1) Per an agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA, no team can talk to a NFL player unless he is a free agent (restricted or unrestricted). If a drafted player wants to play for a better team he has two choices:

Drop out of the draft and spend (at least) a year out of football (see Barry Sanders or John Elway) or

Get your new team to seek a trade (see Eli Manning/Philip Rivers trade).

2) The pay is on a sliding scale according to draft rank. If the #1 pick gets 25 million, then the #2 pick gets a little less and so forth and so on until you reach the rookie minimum. This is why no one could sign the first five picks last year until Andrew Luck and RG3 signed their contracts.

3) It changes every year but is always around 7*32 = 256. This number increases or decreases depending on some administrative factors. Basically every team starts out with one pick per round. If a team picks in the supplemental draft (see Raiders for T. Pryor) or violate NFL rules (see Saints bountygate), they can lose picks but if the NFL does something to negatively impact a team, the team gets a Compensatory pick. Last year, there were 253 picks and in 2011, there were 254. This number is not impacted by the fact that some teams can give their pick to another team (see RG3 trade).

4) As long as you are at least three years out of high school, you can be drafted. However, barring a miracle or major story (see Brian Banks), it is nearly impossible to get drafted without starting for a Division I or II football team. Now the NCAA says that a player has five years to play for four years. During that time, players are prohibited from speaking to agents or professional teams, etc, UNLESS they declare themselves as eligible for the draft in which case, they can no longer play for the college after the season.

HTH

1 - He can only sign with the team that drafted him, or try to convince them to trade his rights, if neither happens he must sit out until next years draft which he can enter.

2 - Now the salaries are capped for rookies, and contract are not negotiated that much, before they weren't and the market is still there as the wage will equal a sum that the player will not sit out a year and reenter the draft to get drafted by another team.

3 - 32*8=256 - There are 7 rounds of 32 picks one for each team, compensatory picks (32) are awarded based on free agency losses, if all compensation picks are not awarded the rest will be added at the end of the 7th as if there had been an eight round until all 32 extra picks had been used, it should be noted that sometimes there are fewer picks as this year the Browns chose a player (Josh Gordon) in the supplemental draft, when choosing a player in the supplemental draft a draft pick equal to the pick which the player was picked with is forfeited. Also the Saints was forced to give up their second as a penalty for the Bounty gate.

4 - Any draft eligible player can be taken, but college players that are eligible to play NCAA next year that wish to enter the draft has to declare their intent.

1) the agreement the league has with the players union prevents it.

2) the owners have an agreement among themselves. Under normal circumstances that would be "collusion" and illegal, but in the 60's Congress made an exception, which allowed the NFL and AFL to merge. Before the merger, a player could get drafted by both leagues, then turn down one of the offers.

3) each team gets 7 picks per year. But the picks can be traded.

4) any player can be picked, but if the player doesn't want to play he can sit out, unsigned and unpaid, and the team wasted its pick.