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Mike Greenberg Is Calling For Drastic Change To NFL Draft

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated May 13, 2025 5:25 PM ET

NBA fans were furious to see that the Dallas Mavericks, a team that nearly made the playoffs, win the NBA Draft lottery last night. But for ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, the situation presents a chance to change things in a big way.

On Tuesday’s edition of Get Up, Greenberg made the case that the NFL and other sports leagues should consider having a draft lottery too. His argument is that the draft lottery discourages teams from actively tanking their team since they can’t be assured of the top pick in the draft.

“(NBA Commissioner Adam Silver) recognizes, as should every sports fan, tanking is a scourge. Tanking is a disgrace. Tanking runs contrary to literally everything sports is designed to be. Incentivizing losing is the worst mistake any sport can possibly make, any sports league can make,” said Greenberg. “As a result, I think it is great news. People saying, ‘Oh, this isn’t working because the worst teams aren’t getting the pick!’. Shut up! That’s exactly the wrong way to look at it. This way? Win games. Go out there and win games and see what happens.”

Greeny: "I just did the NFL Draft... the number of people who said to me coming out of Green Bay, 'well we'll just suck this year and get Arch Manning'... shut up! Win games for crying out loud... it should never benefit a team to lose any game that is being played." pic.twitter.com/9kDB1YyAlL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 13, 2025

“You know what should happen? The NFL should add this. Every sport should add this,” Greenberg said. “The lottery is a brilliant idea and I would completely favor – I know (Adam Schefter) was on talking about it on the radio this morning. I would absolutely be in favor of the NFL going to some sort of draft lottery so you stop with the tanking, which is the worst thing in sports.”

That’s not a suggestion NBA or NFL fans seem to want to hear though. The downside to the proposal is that bad teams are likely to stay bad for an indefinite amount of time without the top players in the league joining their ranks.

You only need to look at how long the Houston Texans or Washington Commanders were mired in the muck before performing poorly enough to get that elite talent that instantly turned them into contenders. Had it not been for those wretched years, they might still be averaging double-digit losses on an annual basis.

That said, the NFL may one day recognize that there would be serious ratings in an NFL Draft Show like we had with yesterday’s NBA Draft show.

Food for thought.

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

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