2015 NFL draft

Prior to 2015, despite having become a major annual television event for the NFL, drafts had only been held with a limited and relatively-small in-person attendance, and had been held exclusively in New York City since 1965. After the management of the event's longtime venue, Radio City Music Hall, had forced the league to postpone their 2014 draft due to a scheduling conflict at the venue, the NFL grew frustrated with the venue and decided to open-up bidding for a new site to host its 2015 draft. The league asked for bids not only to include a venue for the draft itself, but to also present an adjacent venue (either indoor or outdoor) in which the league could host a fan festival. The league received interest from 12 possible host cities, but zeroed in on bids from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. New York City was proposing potentially keeping the event at Radio City Music Hall or moving it to another venue such as Madison Square Garden. Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden both shared the same ownership – MSG. The NFL quickly narrowed their selection further to either Chicago or Los Angeles. Soldier Field and McCormick Place. In organizing the event, Chicago reimagined the draft into a much larger event than it previously had been and made it accessible for the first time to a large public attendance. Across the street from the Auditorium Theatre in Grant Park, a large free-admission multi-day fan festival dubbed "Draft Town" was erected. The festival that drew 200,000 visitors. Within the grounds of the festival, fans could watch live footage of the first three rounds draft from within the festival. While the first three rounds of the draft still took place inside an indoor venue (the Auditorium Theatre), the final round of the draft were held outdoors before an open-admittance crowd in an area of the festival dubbed "Selection Square". Subsequent drafts have retained the large-scale attendance and festivities pioneered for the 2015 draft. ==Timing changes==

Shortly before the draft, the NFL shortened the amount of time for certain selections to be made. The time for seventh-round selections was reduced from five minutes to four minutes; similarly, the time for all compensatory selections, which cannot be traded, was reduced from seven minutes to four minutes. ==Early entrants==

Seventy-four underclassmen announced their intention to forgo their remaining NCAA eligibility and declare themselves available to be selected in the draft. An additional ten players who graduated but were still eligible to play college football chose to enter the draft, bringing to 84 the total number of players who chose to forgo college eligibility to enter the draft. ==Overview==

The following is the breakdown of the 256 players selected by position: • 34 linebackers • 35 wide receivers • 30 cornerbacks • 24 offensive tackles • 23 defensive ends • 18 running backs • 4 fullbacks • 19 tight ends • 16 guards • 16 safeties • 20 defensive tackles • 7 quarterbacks • 6 centers • 1 long snapper • 1 punter ==Selection order==

The draft order is based generally on each team's record from the previous season, with teams which qualified for the postseason selecting after those which failed to make the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans each finished with league-worst . The Buccaneers were awarded the first pick in round one due to having a worse strength of schedule. The selection order for subsequent rounds follows the order of the first round, except that teams with the similar records (and the same playoff result for playoff teams) rotate selections round-by-round (e.g. the Titans picked first in the second round). In addition to the seven picks each team is given (one in each round), the league allocated thirty-two (32) supplemental picks at the ends of round 3 through 7, for a total of 256 picks. The supplemental picks are awarded to teams who had net losses of free agent talent from the previous year. ==Player selections==

, taken first overall by Tampa Bay, broke several passing records but struggled with turnovers during his tenure with the Buccaneers. was taken second overall by Tennessee and played with them for five seasons before signing with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020 was taken fourth overall by the Oakland Raiders before being traded to Dallas. , taken by the St. Louis Rams 10th overall, led the league in rushing twice and received numerous Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors before being hampered by injuries. , taken 15th overall by the San Diego Chargers emerged as one of the league's top cornerbacks after his selection by Kansas City, but has been traded several times. , a third-round selection by Seattle led the league in receptions and receiving yards in 2020. ==Supplemental draft==

A supplemental draft was held on July 9, 2015. For each player selected in the supplemental draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season. Seven players were available, but only one was selected. ==Notable undrafted players==

In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2015 draft. Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 ==Summary==

Selections by college athletic conference Schools with multiple draft selections Selections by position ==Notes==