2004 NFL Draft

In 2004, the thirty two teams of the NFL got together and held the sixty eighth yearly NFL Draft, where each of them chose college players to play for their team. It was held at Madison Square Garden in New York on April 24 and 25. The draft was shown on ESPN. There were 255 choices in the draft.
The draft started with the San Diego Chargers picking Eli Manning. He was traded to the New York Giants a short time later. There were 32 picks given to 16 teams because they lost free agents that offseason. The teams with the most compensatory picks were the Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams, and New York Jets, each with four. There were several records during the draft: the most wide receivers selected in the first round (7), and the most trades in the first round (28). The University of Miami had six players chosen in the first round. Ohio State set an NFL draft record having 14 players picked in all rounds. As of 2012, this draft also has another records: it is the first draft which has had two quarterbacks who each won more than one Super Bowl (with Ben Roethlisberger winning his second in 2008 and Eli Manning winning his second in 2011). The positions of the players in the draft were: