[revrew]

Condition C:

One week after the rookie draft, a single-team expansion draft was to be held for the new Dragons, just as was done for the Houston Texans in 2002. But the rules Ledger required for the draft were significantly different:

a. Rather than exposing only 5 players to the draft (as in 2002), each NFL team was required to leave 15 veteran players eligible, if possible. Any veteran or undrafted rookie free agent in the first year of a contract would be automatically protected and ineligible for the expansion draft.

b. Each team would ALSO leave the players they chose with their 2nd through 7th round picks in the 2025 rookie draft eligible to be selected in the expansion draft. Should the Dragons select a drafted rookie, however, the team losing its player would immediately be allowed to protect all remaining drafted players. Further, the Dragons could only select two rookies from each round, thus 2 players chosen in the second round, 2 in the third, and so on.

c. After ANY player was selected, rookie or veteran, the team drafted from would be allowed to protect an additional 5 players, rookie or veteran.

Condition C set the stage for a wild expansion draft. It also produced a flurry of attention, especially on Joker.com. And when ESPN announced it would televise the expansion draft live, the NFL thought it had hit the jackpot …