How Much Do 1st Round NFL Draft Picks Make?

How much money do 1st round NFL draft picks make? It depends on a number of factors, including the player’s position, the team they’re drafted by, and the NFL’s salary cap.

Introduction

The NFL draft is an exciting time for fans of the sport, as it marks the moment when young prospects become professional football players. It’s also a time when these rookies can start earning some serious money.

First-round draft picks in the NFL typically receive contracts that guarantee them a certain amount of money. These contracts also include signing bonuses, which can be quite large. For example, the number one overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, Joe Burrow, is set to earn a guaranteed $36 million over four years, with a signing bonus of $23 million.

Of course, not all first-round picks are created equal. Where a player is drafted will impact their salary, as will their position and other factors. The average salary for a first-round pick in the NFL is around $10 million per year. However, some players will earn much more than that while others will make less.

So how much do first-round NFL draft picks make? It depends on a number of factors, but most rookie contracts are worth millions of dollars.

NFL Draft Picks and Salaries

The NFL Draft is an annual event in which the 32 teams in the National Football League (NFL) select college football players to join their teams.NFL

1st Round Picks

The average salary for a first round NFL draft pick is $10.8 million. This is based on the 2020 NFL draft where 32 players were selected in the first round. The highest paid player from this draft is Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow, who signed a four-year, $36 million contract that includes a $24.9 million signing bonus. The lowest paid player from this draft is Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who signed a four-year, $14.01 million contract that includes a $8.51 million signing bonus.

1st Round Picks
The average salary for a first round NFL draft pick is $10.8 million. This is based on the 2020 NFL draft where 32 players were selected in the first round. The highest paid player from this draft is Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow, who signed a four-year, $36 million contract that includes a $24.9 million signing bonus. The lowest paid player from this draft is Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who signed a four-year, $14.01 million contract that includes a $8.51 million signing bonus.

2nd Round Picks

The second round of the NFL draft tends to be full of players who fell a little bit in the draft due to various reasons. Maybe they have an injury history or character concerns. Maybe they’re a little bit shorter than teams would like. Or maybe they just didn’t test quite as well as some of the other prospects.

Whatever the reasons may be, the players who are selected in the second round are typically very good football players who have the potential to be great. And because of that, they tend to make pretty good money.

According to Spotrac, the average salary for a second-round pick in the NFL is $3,369,448. That’s not quite as much as first-round picks, who make an average of $4,622,240, but it’s still a lot of money. And it’s more than double the average salary of third-round picks, who make an average of $1,629,716.

So if you’re wondering how much second-round picks make in the NFL draft, the answer is that they make a whole lot more than most people do.

3rd Round Picks

The average third-round pick in the NFL draft signs a four-year contract worth $2.8 million, with a $600,000 signing bonus and a $50,000 workout bonus included. In their first year, third-rounders make a base salary of $675,000. In Year 2, that number goes up to $825,000. Year 3 sees a slight bump to $975,000, and in the fourth and final year of the deal, third-round picks make a base salary of $1.13 million.

Conclusion

In conclusion, first-round NFL draft picks make a lot of money. The average salary for a first-round pick is over $10 million, and the highest-paid first-rounder makes over $30 million. While there is a wide range of salaries for first-round picks, all of them are significantly higher than the average salary for an NFL player, which is just over $2 million.