FCS Draft Pipeline Swings Wildly, From Six Picks to 30-Player Peaks

The pipeline is real, but it is not smooth

The FCS is still sending players to the NFL, but the flow jumps around hard enough to make any flat narrative look lazy. One year the subdivision produces six picks, another year it nearly triples that total, and the whole picture gets fuzzier once you account for transfers and school affiliation.

That volatility is the story. The NFL Draft has been seven rounds since 1994, so HERO Sports’ year-by-year tracker starts there for a clean baseline. Since then, the subdivision has had peaks, valleys and strange in-between years that tell you as much about scouting habits and roster movement as they do about talent.

A history built on spikes, not a straight line

The modern ceiling was loud and unmistakable: 30 FCS players were drafted in 1996 and again in 1997. That is the kind of output that forces the league to pay attention, because it means the subdivision was not just producing one or two special cases, it was flooding the board.

The roots go back farther than the tracker’s start date. Division I-AA began in 1978, was renamed the FCS in 2006, and the first Division I-AA championship was played that same year in 1978, when Florida A&M beat Massachusetts 35-28. Since then, the subdivision has never stopped being a draft source, even if the size of the wave changes from class to class.

Recent years have been wildly uneven

The cleanest example of that volatility is the swing from 2020 and 2021 to 2022. NCAA draft recaps show six FCS players were selected in 2020, five in 2021 and 20 in 2022. NCAA described 2022 as a return to normalcy after COVID-19 disrupted the pre-draft process in the two previous years, and the numbers back that up.

That is not a small bounce. Going from six to 20 means the subdivision did not just recover, it reopened the door to the kind of visibility that had been missing. Trey Lance was one of the five FCS players selected in 2021, and his profile was part of the reason the subdivision stayed on the radar even in a thin year. In the 2020 class, the six names included Jeremy Chinn, Adam Trautman, Isaiah Coulter, Lachavious Simmons, Ben DiNucci and Derrek Tuszka, a reminder that a small class can still produce real NFL players.

The numbers dipped and rose again after that. NCAA.com reported 10 FCS players in 2023, 11 in 2024 and eight former FCS players in 2025. Those totals do not scream stability, but they do prove the lane is still open.

Why 2024 and 2025 matter more than the raw totals

The 2024 draft was especially important because it exposed how thin the top end can get in a given year. NCAA’s recap says 11 former FCS players were selected, and none went in the first or second round, the first time that had happened since 2009. Holy Cross lineman C.J. Hanson was the final FCS player taken that year, which says plenty about how quickly the subdivision can move from headline-grabbing to quietly durable.

Then 2025 pushed the conversation back up again. Eight former FCS players were selected, led by North Dakota State offensive lineman Grey Zabel at No. 18 overall to Seattle. Zabel was the first FCS player selected in the 2025 draft and the class included one first-rounder, which matters because the first round is still the clearest proof that FCS talent can rise above the skepticism attached to smaller-school labels.

The bigger tracker, though, showed 15 total selections in 2025. That gap matters. It suggests the tracker is counting some players through an FCS-to-FBS lens or by school affiliation rather than only by where they finished, which is exactly the kind of detail that makes draft totals slippery in the transfer era.

Transfers are changing how the pipeline is counted

This is where modern roster movement changes the story. Some prospects now get counted in both the school they played for and the subdivision they represented at draft time, which means the definition of an FCS draft pick is not as tidy as it used to be. That does not make the pipeline less real; it makes it harder to read with a simple glance at the total column.

The tracker’s transfer column matters because the talent movement is no longer one-directional. Players move up, move around and rebrand their draft case before the NFL ever turns the card in. That is why a name like Grey Zabel can anchor a draft class for North Dakota State, while other recent names such as Kiran Amegadjie, Jalyx Hunt and Mason McCormick reflect how widely the league is scanning for FCS value.

What the first round says about the ceiling

The FCS is not just a late-round factory. NCAA.com says 24 FCS players have been selected in the first round since the subdivision began in 1978, and that is the number programs really sell when they talk to recruits and donors. A first-rounder changes the pitch overnight, because it proves that the subdivision can still produce premium NFL talent, not just developmental depth.

That is why Grey Zabel going No. 18 overall mattered beyond one player. It gave the 2025 class a high-end face after 2024 failed to land a first- or second-round pick, and it reminded everyone that one elite evaluation can swing a whole narrative. The ceiling remains intact even when the floor gets shaky.

What the swings mean for FCS programs

The practical lesson for FCS programs is not to market volume, but to market proof. A strong draft year gives coaches a stronger case that their development pipeline is visible to the league, while a weak year forces them to lean harder on individual success stories and transfer paths. When the total jumps from six to 20 or falls back into the low teens, the message to recruits is simple: visibility is earned, not guaranteed.

That is why the subdivision remains a useful, if unpredictable, NFL supply line. HERO Sports says 198 FCS players were drafted from 2013 through 2025, which is enough volume to keep NFL scouts returning every spring. But the real lesson is the volatility itself: the FCS can look quiet for a year, then suddenly hit with a class that reminds everyone the talent is still there, waiting to be found.