2006 NFL draft
71st annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible players
The 2006 NFL draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with additional coverage offered by ESPNU and, for the first time, by NFL Network. Having signed a contract with the Houston Texans on the evening before the draft, Mario Williams, a defensive end from North Carolina State, became the draft's first pick. The selection surprised many commentators, who predicted that the Texans would draft Southern California running back Reggie Bush or Texas quarterback Vince Young, who would later immediately be drafted with the second and third overall picks by the teams that went on the clock after the Texans did, the New Orleans Saints (selecting Bush) and the Tennessee Titans (selecting Young), respectively. Ohio State produced the most first-round selections (five), while Southern California produced the most overall selections (eleven). Twenty-seven compensatory and supplemental compensatory selections were distributed amongst seventeen teams; Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Tennessee each held three compensatory picks. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
As of 2026, only two players from the 2006 class remain active in the NFL: Broncos tight end Marcedes Lewis and Bills placekicker Matt Prater.
The 255 players chosen in the draft were composed of:
Player selections
Supplemental draft selections
For each player selected in the Supplemental Draft, the team forfeits its selection in that round in the draft of the following season.
Notable undrafted players
Hall of Famers
Devin Hester, return specialist and wide receiver from Miami (FL), taken 2nd round, 57th overall by the Chicago Bears.
“2006 NFL draft” enters the record as 71st annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible players. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what draft, 71st and annual can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“2006 NFL draft” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, draft, 71st and annual provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2447844. The first chronological checks are 2006 and 2026.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “2006 NFL draft”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 2006 NFL draft primary sources, 2006 NFL draft archive and draft research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2006 NFL draft”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “2006 NFL draft” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.