NEW YORK, April 21 – NFL.com & ESPN.com generated more than 45 million page views, 5.6 million visits and 3.6 million unique users over the course of the NFL Draft weekend, Saturday-Monday, April 17-19. Five years ago, when the NFL launched the first professional sports league Web site, 50,000 unique users visited for the Draft.

Draft Central, the special NFL Draft site accessible via NFL.com and ESPN.com, included pre-draft analysis and live draft coverage, complete with expert commentary and DraftTracker, which enabled users to analyze draft picks in real time and sort selections by player, position, NFL or college team, and other variables.

"Our online partnership with ESPN has dramatically built the Internet audience for the NFL Draft around the world," said Jaan Janes, senior director of programming and marketing for NFL Enterprises. "Fans can now have nearly as much background and analysis information available as the coaches and team executives making the selection decisions."

On Saturday, visitors to Draft Central were treated to live chats from the floor of the draft with #1 draft pick Tim Couch, as well as subsequent selections Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, Edgerrin James, Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams, Daunte Culpepper and Cade McNown. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue also chatted during the first round, and former Dallas Cowboys player personnel director Gil Brandt chatted with fans throughout the day. Ten out of the top twenty draft picks chatted on DraftCentral Saturday.

The site received more than 20,000 questions for the chats, including 8,000 in the first two hours of the draft. Five years ago, the site received a total of 2,500 questions. Fans also participated in user polls and had an opportunity to "grade" each team’s draft performance.

More than 43,000 entries were received for the 1^st Round Forecast, in which draftniks were asked to predict the first 15 selections in the first round. John Gorman emerged victorious by correctly predicting 12 of the 15 picks.

ESPN.com is produced by ESPN Internet Ventures, a joint venture between Buena Vista Internet Group and Infoseek. NFL.com is a co-production of the NFL and ESPN Internet Ventures. ESPN.com is part of GO Network.

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