After 257 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft HBCU football is still on the outside looking in as there were zero players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities selected in 7 rounds of this year’s NFL Draft.
This is the second time in the last four years (2021) that no HBCU players have been drafted and there was only one player taken in 2023 when the New England Patriots took Isaiah Bolden from Jackson State with pick 247 in the 7th round.
The 2021 draft felt like a statistical aberration mainly because all HBCU games were canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2022, four HBCU players were drafted, including two as early as the 4th round, one of which, Joshua Williams from Fayetteville State, came from a Division II HBCU.
Looking back on the past decade, you can see the frequency of black college football players getting drafted dropping steadily. From 2014 to 2019 there were 20 HBCU players taken in the draft with at least 2 players selected in those draft classes, with an average of over 3 selections during that time.
Since 2020, only six players have been drafted for an average of slightly over one player per year, and four are in the same draft class.
Fast forward to 2024, and it’s hard to tell if HBCU football’s low numbers in the NFL Draft are just a dip, a blip, or a trend. Time will tell which direction the graph will chart, but in the era of the NCAA transfer portal, the optics of players not getting drafted from a Historically Black College and University doesn’t bode well for the retention of high-caliber athletes in our HBCU football programs.
And while the undrafted free agent route does have some advantages over being a late-round draft pick. There will always be a certain cache that comes with seeing your name scroll across the screen during NFL Draft weekend. Not to mention the difference in pay structure for someone drafted versus someone signing an undrafted free agent deal.
Players drafted in the first round receive a four-year contract with a fifth-year club option, which means the player’s base salary will be fully guaranteed. Players drafted in rounds 2-7 receive just a four-year rookie contract, while undrafted free agents receive a three-year contract when they sign with a team.
Article 7 of the NFL’s CBA states that “a rookie contract for a drafted rookie may not be renegotiated, amended or altered in any way until after the final regular season game of the player’s third contract year.” So those on rookie contracts can’t receive an extension until after their third NFL season, which for an undrafted free agent, is at the end of their rookie deal instead of being able to re-up with one year left.
Making it to the NFL is one of the toughest things to do in professional sports, and being drafted is an honor that every player from Pop Warner to Power 5 dreams about. For HBCU football, added exposure via the HBCU Combine and Legacy Bowl may not be enough to curb the tide