Detroit sets attendance record for the draft
The NFL draft has a new attendance record after more than 700,000 fans flooded downtown Detroit for the three-day event.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer broke the news at Campus Martius Park during the third and final day of the draft.
“It has been a historic week here in the great city of Detroit,” Whitmer said Saturday. “We have shown the world what the Motor City is all about.”
While it will take years to know if this week’s picks delivered, there’s no doubt that Detroit made the most of an opportunity to host hundreds of thousands of fans and show 50-plus million viewers the new-look city.
Motown beat Music City’s three-day attendance record of 600,000 set in 2019, when fans filled Broadway in Nashville.
The NFL did not charge fans to attend the event in Detroit, though the visitors and area residents were expected to generate more than $160 million in economic impact at sold-out hotels, packed bars and restaurants, as well as retail stores in the heart of downtown.
Former Lions running back Billy Sims was enjoying brisk sales of barbecue from his restaurant under a tent on a sidewalk along Woodward Avenue.
“Fans have been great, and business has been good,” said Sims, who was drafted by Detroit with the No. 1 pick in 1980. “To have the draft here is great for the entire state of Michigan.”
Green Bay will host the 2025 draft.
Teams started out by taking offensive players at a record rate in the first round — including a record-tying seven wide receivers — without a defensive player coming off the board until Indianapolis took UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu at No. 15 overall.
In a sign of the times, a running back wasn’t drafted until Carolina grabbed Jonathon Brooks of Texas with the 46th pick in what was the second-latest pick at the once-coveted position. There was a run of running backs in the fourth round with seven selected, starting with Miami taking Jaylen Wright of Tennessee at No. 120 overall.
Defense was definitely the focus on Day 2, with 20 players on that side of the ball coming off the board in the second round and 17 more in the third.
With the last pick of the fifth round, the New York Jets selected a prospect who didn’t have a snap of college football experience.
Qwan’tez Stiggers planned to play at Lane College in Tennessee in 2020 but returned home that fall because of the death of his father in an automobile accident and the pandemic wiping out the season.
Stiggers played in a 7on-7 indoor league in his hometown of Atlanta two years ago. Last season the defensive back was the Canadian Football League’s most outstanding rookie after making a team-high five interceptions for the Toronto Argonauts.
Stiggers said he plans to make the teams who passed on him regret it.
“They’re going to have to pay all year,” he said.
With the last pick of the draft, the Jets selected Alabama safety Jaylen Key, the spot commonly referred to as “Mr. Irrelevant.”
Jets clear cap space
The Jets traded defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to Denver for a 2026 sixth-round pick, the Associated Press reported.
Franklin-Myers, who was drafted by the Rams in 2018, had 31⁄2 sacks last season and 171⁄2 in four seasons with the Jets. His base salary this season is $13.3 million and he was due to count about $16.4 million on the salary cap.
It’s the second trade between the teams in a week after New York sent quarterback Zach Wilson and a seventh-round pick to Denver for a sixth-rounder on Monday.
ESPN reported Franklin-Myers agreed to a new twoyear, $15-million deal with the Broncos.
He was a fourth-round pick out of Stephen F. Austin in 2018 and had two sacks as a rookie with the Rams, along with a sack and forced fumble against New England in the Super Bowl. The Jets claimed Franklin-Myers off waivers before the 2019 season and he developed into a pass rusher.
Chiefs open to f inding a new home
Kansas City plans to explore options that include leaving Arrowhead Stadium after voters in Jackson County, Mo., soundly rejected a sales tax initiative that would have helped to pay for renovations to the 52year-old building.
The Chiefs and Royals, whose Kauffman Stadium shares the Truman Sports Complex with the football stadium, have relied on a three-eighths-cent sales tax for upkeep. The franchises wanted to extend that tax with the Royals using their share of the money for a new downtown ballpark and the Chiefs envisioning an $800million renovation of Arrowhead.
More than 58% of voters rejected the sales tax initiative after the campaign was met with criticism from all sides.
“Time is short for us at this point and so we need to see what other options are out there for us,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said Saturday.
“When we started on this process three years ago, it felt like we had a very long time — a long runway with about 91⁄2 [years] left on our lease. We’re now down to 61⁄2 and so I do feel very much of a sense of urgency.”