Even as the Detroit Lions chirp about their 2024 NFL Draft in-person attendance being higher than the 2025 version in Green Bay, the overall viewership numbers for the latter keep opening eyes.

First of all, pure boots-on-ground numbers: More than 600,000 people showed up in Green Bay last weekend over the course of three days. And that’s in a city of just over 100,000 people. So, essentially, SIX Green Bays showed up in Green Bay. That's a lot of OnePass registrations. Even more remarkable is the original forecast was a total of 250,000 in attendance over three days.

Detroit’s population is a bit over 630,000 and has vastly more amenities to accommodate large events. It drew a record 775,000 attendees to last year’s Draft, which is indeed impressive. However, I’ll stop right there and let you go ahead and chew on those per-capita numbers, because they aren’t close. What Green Bay pulled off in tying Nashville for second most attended draft of all time was nothing short of remarkable.

The NFL also announced that the 2025 Draft hosted in the league’s smallest city (Buffalo is second at around 275,000) was the second most viewed of all-time (behind 2020), with an average audience of 7.5 million viewers across all platforms – up 27% from last year’s broadcast. (Ahem.)

Watching attendance wane and surge over the three-day Draft was interesting – and telling. After the live attendance numbers understandably dropped on Day 2, Day 3 stormed in with a massive comeback. The question is, would this have happened if a certain player didn’t slide into the fifth round?

When the viewership numbers came out this week, former Green Bay Packers executive Andrew Brandt posted on Twitter/X, “The NFL owes a lot to Shedeur Sanders for these ratings.”

Brandt then followed up with, “His not being drafted in rounds 2-3 was the best thing to ever happen to ratings for the 3rd day of the Draft.”

Indubitably. The drama was confounding and compelling, mostly because of the drastic nature of the slide of a player many in the Draft Industrial Complex – and certainly, Mel Kiper – had rated as a surefire Day 1 pick. Aaron Rodgers fell from a possible first overall pick to Pick 24 in 2005, but he didn’t fall into the fifth freaking round. Sanders really knows how to slide.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t in attendance for this year’s Draft, and even I could see what an incredible atmosphere it was, all the way from my home in Louisville. I watched basically every second of the Draft, save for when I took a bathroom or beer break. And like most remote Packers fans, I basked in watching Green Bay shine on the biggest stage imaginable.

From Matthew Golden’s mesmerizing walk to greet Roger Goodell and fire up the countless Packers fans in attendance, to the emotional appearance of Barryn Sorrell when his name finally was called in Round 4, the entire event was engaging. For my money, Sorrell stole the entire show, Sanders notwithstanding.

Back to the on-ground event: With 205,000 reported attendees on Day 1, the gates had to be cut off. Day 2 reportedly left a bit to be desired weather-wise, so attendance dropped to “only” 175,000. Day 3 was the shocker of the draft, with 220,000 cycling through the gates throughout the seven-and-a-half-hour final four rounds.

And while Sanders’ freefall no doubt fueled much (most?) of the TV and streaming audience as the draft wore on, having been to Green Bay many times and experienced the hospitality and culture firsthand, I firmly believe that the third day in-person surge had everything to do with the fact the NFL and the city put on what amounted to a massive tailgate party. One that lasted three full days. With 600,000 friends. Heck, even Tom Grossi was there.

Out-of-towners were caught on camera repeatedly praising the city, the people of Green Bay and the atmosphere. Only one arrest was made over the entire event, according to one report. We’re talking about a three-day surge of more than half a million people, with massive amounts of beer being consumed, and only a single arrest happened. (It was probably a Lions fan.)

I can still hear the roaring chants of “Go Pack Go” each time the Packers were on the clock or made a pick, which in my imagination I believe probably could be heard all across the city, all the way down the Fox River and into the Bay. 

We can only wonder if they could also hear those roars in Detroit.