The 2018 NFL draft was the 83rd annual meeting of

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) 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 southwest of

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

; it was the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium and the first to be held in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. 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 amount (along with the

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

and 2021 drafts) after the six selected in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and 2024. As of 2024, only Allen and Jackson have remained with their original teams. The draft was also the first to have siblings—safety Terrell Edmunds and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds—selected in its first round. The 2018 NFL draft was the first of two professional sports drafts to be held in the

Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas and the Southern United States, ...

during the calendar year, as the Dallas Stars hosted the 2018 NHL draft in June.

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

Linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

s * 33

Wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

s * 29

Cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

s * 23

Defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

s * 20

Running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

s * 20

Defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridir ...

s * 21 Offensive tackles * 18 Safeties * 14

Tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

s * 13

Quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

s * 9 Offensive guards * 8 Centers * 4 Punters * 2

Placekicker In gridiron football, the placekicker (PK), or simply kicker (K), is the player responsible for attempts at scoring Field goal (football), field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist ...

s * 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 for the following season.

Trades

(PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades which 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 ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and NFL Network, with Fox also simulcasting NFL Network's coverage of the first two rounds of broadcast television (serving as a prelude for Fox's acquisition of '' Thursday Night Football'' for the 2018 season). 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 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

. ESPN Deportes broadcast coverage in Spanish. Telecasts of the first round across all three broadcasters (which included the expansion of coverage to broadcast television) 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 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. 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 (3.776 and 2.005 million individually).

Summary

Selections by college athletic conference

Schools with multiple draft selections

Selections by position

Notes

References

;Trade references ;General references {{2018 NFL season by team NFL draft

NFL Draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

Draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

21st century in Arlington, Texas National Football League in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex

Events in Arlington, Texas Sports in Arlington, Texas