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The NFL Draft Is an American TV Juggernaut; ACC, UNC Offer Elite 2023 Prospects

By David Glenn

 

Decades ago, the National Football League passed Major League Baseball as the most lucrative sports organization in the world. The NFL draft, which begins Thursday (8 pm, ABC/ESPN/ESPN Deportes/NFL Network) in Kansas City with the first round and runs through Saturday, offers another major reminder why.

Millions of Americans care, and they care a lot, even when games aren’t being played.

As a television product, the NFL draft — and the highly publicized first round, in particular — now often draws a larger TV/streaming audience than all but a handful of the most prominent GAMES offered by America’s other favorite sports.

For example, in 2021, the NFL draft’s first round drew an average audience of approximately 12.5 million viewers across the four above-mentioned broadcast channels and their corresponding digital platforms. The 2021 National Basketball Association draft’s first round, another much-publicized event televised on ABC and ESPN, averaged about 3 million viewers.

For additional perspective on the magnitude of that 2021 first-round NFL audience, consider that the 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros averaged approximately 11.9 million viewers per game, the 2021 NBA championship series between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns averaged approximately 9.9 million viewers per game, and the 2021 Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens averaged approximately 2.5 million viewers per game.

Yes, you read that correctly. An offseason NFL event, in which not a pass was thrown nor a tackle made, attracted a larger first-night audience than those of the most important ACTUAL GAMES in the CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES of America’s other most popular professional team sports.

Besides NFL games, the only regularly scheduled annual sporting events that routinely have attracted larger audiences than those of the NFL draft’s first round in recent years are the College Football Playoff (the three-game average can surpass 20 million per game), the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament (the three-game average has been in the 14-19 million per game range lately) and the one-hour-long “race segment” of Kentucky Derby horse racing coverage (14-17 million with occasional anomalies). Again, all of those involve actual games/races.

Thanks to recently signed multimedia contracts worth approximately $10 billion per year all the way through the 2033 season, the NFL is expected to become — within the next few years — the first sports organization ever whose annual revenues routinely surpass $20 billion per year.

The Super Bowl often draws an American TV/streaming audience of more than 100 million viewers, and in recent years, NFL games — including many of the regular-season variety — have produced a large majority of the most watched TV events in America, and that includes cable or network broadcasts, sports or non-sports programming.

The powerful draw of the NFL can be similarly impressive during its offseason, and there’s no sign of that interest slowing down. Each of the last four NFL drafts ranked among the eight most watched in history, led by the all-time record 8.4 million average viewers (over the full three-day event and about 15 hours of coverage) in 2020, 6.2 million in 2019 and 6.1 million in 2021.

2023 Top-Rated ACC/NC Prospects, NFL Draft Projection

  • Clemson DE Myles Murphy (6-4, 268), 1st Round
  • Clemson DT Bryan Bresee (6-5, 298), 1st Round
  • Georgia Tech DE Keion White (6-4, 285), 1st/2nd Round
  • Boston College WR Zay Flowers (5-9, 182), 1st/2nd Round
  • Pittsburgh DT Calijah Kancey (6-1, 281), 1st/2nd Round
  • North Carolina WR Josh Downs (5-8, 171), 1st/2nd Round
  • Clemson LB Trenton Simpson (6-2, 235), 2nd/3rd Round
  • Syracuse OT Matthew Bergeron (6-5, 318), 2nd/3rd Round
  • Miami CB Tyrique Stevenson (6-0, 198), 2nd/3rd Round
  • Wake Forest WR AT Perry (6-3, 198), 2nd/3rd Round
  • Pittsburgh RB Israel Abanikanda (5-10, 216), 2nd/3rd Round
  • Louisville LB Yasir Abdullah (6-1, 237), 2nd/3rd Round

2023 Additional ACC/NC NFL Draft Prospects

(Alphabetically, By School)

  • Appalachian State LB Nick Hampton (6-2, 236)
  • Appalachian State OG Cooper Hodges (6-3, 304)
  • Appalachian State RB Camerun Peoples (6-1, 223)
  • Boston College S Jaiden Woodbey (6-0, 222)
  • Campbell DE Brevin Allen (6-3, 265)
  • Campbell TE Julian Hill (6-3, 247)
  • Charlotte WR Grant DuBose (6-2, 201)
  • Charlotte LB Amir Siddiq (6-3, 239)
  • Clemson TE Davis Allen (6-5, 245)
  • Clemson DE KJ Henry (6-4, 251)
  • Clemson OG Jordan McFadden (6-2, 303)
  • Clemson WR Joseph Ngata (6-3, 217)
  • Clemson K BT Potter (5-9, 185)
  • Duke LS Evan Deckers (6-3, 248)
  • Duke LB Shaka Heyward (6-2, 235)
  • Duke S Darius Joiner (6-0, 201)
  • East Carolina QB Holton Ahlers (6-3, 227)
  • East Carolina WR CJ Johnson (6-1, 224)
  • East Carolina TE Ryan Jones (6-1, 240)
  • East Carolina RB Keaton Mitchell (5-7, 179)
  • Elon K Skyler Davis (5-6, 165)
  • Florida State DT Robert Cooper (6-2, 335)
  • Florida State OG Dillan Gibbons (6-4, 321)
  • Florida State S Jammie Robinson (5-10, 191)
  • Florida State WR Ontaria Wilson (6-0, 181)
  • Georgia Tech LB Charlie Thomas (6-2, 216)
  • Louisville OG Caleb Chandler (6-4, 297)
  • Louisville CB Kei’Trel Clark (5-10, 181)
  • Louisville QB Malik Cunningham (5-11, 192)
  • Louisville DE YaYa Diaby (6-3, 263)
  • Louisville RB Tiyon Evans (5-9, 225)
  • Louisville TE Marshon Ford (6-2, 240)
  • Louisville OT Trevor Reid (6-3, 311)
  • Miami CB DJ Ivey (6-0, 189)
  • Miami TE Will Mallory (6-4, 239)
  • North Carolina WR Antoine Green (6-1, 199)
  • North Carolina OT Asim Richards (6-4, 309)
  • North Carolina LB Noah Taylor (6-4, 238)
  • North Carolina DT Raymond Vohasek (6-2, 306)
  • North Carolina A&T LB Devin Harrell (6-2, 244)
  • North Carolina A&T LB Jermaine McDaniel (6-2, 236)
  • North Carolina A&T C Dacquari Wilson (6-2, 293)
  • NC State K Christopher Dunn (5-7, 175)
  • NC State DT Cory Durden (6-4, 290)
  • NC State S Tanner Ingle (5-9, 179)
  • NC State P Shane McDonough (6-1, 218)
  • NC State LB Isaiah Moore (6-2, 233)
  • NC State LB Drake Thomas (6-0, 223)
  • NC State OG Chandler Zavala (6-3, 316)
  • Pittsburgh DE Deslin Alexander (6-3, 264)
  • Pittsburgh LB Habakkuk Baldonado (6-4, 251)
  • Pittsburgh LB SirVocea Dennis (6-0, 226)
  • Pittsburgh CB Erick Hallett II (5-11, 190)
  • Pittsburgh S Brandon Hill (5-10, 193)
  • Pittsburgh OT Carter Warren (6-5, 311)
  • Syracuse LB Mikel Jones (6-0, 226)
  • Syracuse K Andre Szmyt (6-0, 200)
  • Syracuse RB Sean Tucker (5-9, 207)
  • Syracuse CB Garrett Williams (5-10, 192)
  • Virginia CB Anthony Johnson (6-1, 205)
  • Virginia WR Keytaon Johnson (6-5, 216)
  • Virginia WR Dontayvion Wicks (6-1, 206)
  • Virginia Tech S Chamarri Conner (6-0, 202)
  • Wake Forest DT Dion Bergan Jr (6-1, 294)
  • Wake Forest DT Kobie Turner (6-2, 293)
  • Wake Forest TE Blake Whiteheart (6-3, 247)
  • Wingate P Ethan Evans (6-3, 238)

(featured image via Inside Carolina/Jim Hawkins)

David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

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