 this is a list of first overall national football league draft picks. the national football league draft is an annual sports draft in which nfl teams select newly eligible players for their rosters. to be eligible, a player must be out of high school at least three years. teams are ranked in reverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first. each nfl franchise seeks to add new players through the annual nfl draft. the draft rules were last updated in 2009. the team with the worst record the previous year picks first, the next-worst team second, and so on. teams that did not make the playoffs are ordered by their regular-season record, with any remaining ties broken by strength of schedule. playoff participants are sequenced after non-playoff teams, based on their round of elimination (wild card, division, conference, and super bowl). from  through  the first selection was awarded by a random draw. the team which received this "bonus" pick forfeited its selection in the final round of the draft. the winner of the "bonus pick" was eliminated from the draw in future years. by 1958 all twelve clubs in the league at the time had received a bonus choice and the system was abolished.  before the merger agreements in 1966, the american football league (afl) operated in direct competition with the nfl and held a separate draft. this led to a massive bidding war over top prospects between the two leagues, along with the subsequent drafting of the same player in each draft. as part of the merger agreement on june&nbsp;8, 196
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