Bad Take: Mike Greenberg thinks NFL should adopt a Draft Lottery

I’ve never talked to anyone who likes the NBA Draft Lottery, but don’t tell that to Mike Greenberg. The long-time ESPN host apparently loves it so much, he thinks the NFL should adopt their own draft lottery.

Mike Greenberg’s argument for the draft lottery

The #NFL is the most successful sports league in American history. Here is a way it can become even better. @GetUpESPN pic.twitter.com/Qc9PfMVNmU

— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) May 14, 2025

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I don’t agree with this take one bit, but let’s break it down step-by-step based on what Mike Greenberg is suggesting.

1. It would generate ratings

This isn’t the crux of Mike Greenberg’s argument but it’s what he leads off with. Of course it would generate ratings, everything the NFL does generates ratings. They’ve made the draft itself a prime time event and every year its viewership increases.

The 2025 NFL Draft averaged 7.5 million viewers across ESPN, NFL Network, ABC, ESPN 2, and ESPN Deportes. It was the second-most watched draft in league history and saw a 27 percent increase over last year’s.

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Saying a theoretical NFL draft lottery would generate views isn’t really saying anything at all. Roger Goodell could live stream himself farting for 5 hours and it would probably average a few million views.

2. It would stop tanking

This is the same reason the NBA created the draft lottery, and guess what — it hasn’t stopped tanking. The Sixers have tanked multiple times in my lifetime and have been awarded for it.

Mike Greenberg says that more and more teams are giving up towards the end of the year due to longer seasons. First off, no one really cares about the final week of the season. Secondly, that’s a self-inflicted problem by the NFL. No one was asking for another game. The players didn’t want it. The media didn’t even want it. So, you reap what you sow, as they say.

Bottom line: NBA fans already hate the lottery system — so why would the NFL even consider adopting it? Neither league really cares what fans think, but let’s be honest, the NFL is a much stronger product than the NBA. The NBA is trending downward, while the NFL keeps growing year after year. Why copy a failing formula?

Introducing an NFL Draft lottery would be a wildly unnecessary move that fixes a problem that doesn’t exist. The current system — where the worst teams pick first — works. It’s the backbone of the league’s built-in parity, giving struggling franchises a real shot at turning things around. Every year, we see bottom-feeders rise and playoff teams fall, largely because the NFL rewards teams that need help the most. That kind of year-to-year balance is exactly what keeps the league competitive and exciting from top to bottom.

A lottery would throw all of that into chaos. It would introduce randomness where strategy and merit should matter most. The draft is special because it’s one of the few times fans of bad teams have legitimate hope. You know if your team finishes 3–14, you’re walking away with a franchise-changing player. Turning that into a game of chance like the NBA has done would kill that excitement. Worse, it would feel like the NFL is chasing gimmicks from a league that’s struggling to keep up. The NFL doesn’t need a lottery — it needs to keep doing exactly what’s made it the most successful league in America.

Mike Greenberg’s logic doesn’t add up, but he’s a diehard Jets fan, so it’s not all that surprising.