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The NFL Is Leaning One Way With Potential Draft Lottery

Originally posted on The Spun | By Daniel Bates | Last updated May 18, 2025 6:24 PM ET

Last week's NBA Draft lottery, which saw the Dallas Mavericks land the rights to draft Duke's Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick despite having just 1.8% odds, had fans talking about a lottery system potentially coming to the National Football League.

As interested as fans already are in the NFL Draft, some feel adding a lottery would make the offseason event even more exciting and potentially keep teams from trying to put themselves in position to land the top selection.

However, it doesn't seem like the NFL plans to shift from the way it does business anytime soon.

As PFT's Mike Florio writes, the league likely doesn't want to do anything that flies in the face of the narrative that it's the most competitive league in American sports.

The NFL would make millions from a draft lottery. It's more important for the league to not acknowledge or legitimize the very real temptation to tank. https://t.co/4ORBq6tzak
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 18, 2025

"With the NFL stubbornly pushing the notion that every team tries its best to win every game of every regular season, anything that would crystallize the perception that losing leads to winning would take a sledgehammer to the facade of competitive integrity," Florio argued.

"The NFL doesn't want anyone to connect losing games and getting dibs on the sorting hat process. Having a draft lottery acknowledges the link, making it harder for the NFL to perpetuate the ruse that every team tries to win every game, every week of every year," he continued.

"Without that concern, the NFL surely would have a multi-network, three-hour, prime-time event from the league meetings in March that would draw 10 million or more viewers to see where the bouncing balls will land — and that could be sold to the highest bidder at a massive profit."

The NBA Draft lottery has actually been a point of contention amongst many basketball fans due to it kind of working against the league's worst teams in a lot of cases.

In theory the worst team should have the first chance to get better, and that's why what the NFL does works. But it's always fun to imagine what it'd be like if football had a lottery and the NBA didn't.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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