The 2003 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936. The draft was held April 26–27, 2003 at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.

The draft was broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 beginning at noon on Saturday, April 26 and beginning at 11:00 am on Sunday, April 27. The draft consisted of seven rounds, with teams selecting in the reverse order of the finish the previous season. There were 32 compensatory picks distributed among 15 teams, with five teams each receiving four additional selections. In addition, the Houston Texans, who started play as an expansion franchise in 2002, were granted an extra selection in the middle of each of the final four rounds.^{[citation needed]}

There was little drama when the draft began with the Cincinnati Bengals selecting Carson Palmer, as Palmer had agreed to contract terms with the Bengals the previous day. He became the first Heisman Trophy winner selected first overall in the draft since Vinny Testaverde in 1987. The event ended nearly 30 hours later with Ryan Hoag being chosen by the Oakland Raiders with the final pick and thus gaining the distinction of "Mr. Irrelevant".

The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League (NFL) teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is that each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order relative its record in the previous year—the last place gets positioned first. With this position, the team can either select a player or trade their position to another team for other positions, a player, or players, or any combination thereof. After each team had utilized its position in the drafting order, whether by trading it or selecting a player, a round would be complete. Certain aspects of the draft, including team positioning and the number of rounds in the draft, have seen revisions since its first creation in 1936, but the fundamental methodology has remained the same. The original rationale in creating the draft was to increase the competitive parity between the teams as the worst team would, idealistically, have chosen the best player available.

Aaron Charles Rodgers (born December 2, 1983) is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected in the first round (24th overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers. Rodgers played college football at the University of California, Berkeley, where he set several California Golden Bears records, including lowest interception rate at 1.43%.

Professionally, Rodgers is the NFL's all-time career leader in passer rating during both the regular season with a rating of 104.1, and the post-season with a rating of 105.5 – among passers with at least 1,500 and 150 pass attempts respectively. He also holds the league's lowest career pass interception percentage for quarterbacks during the regular season with a percentage of 1.80%, and the single season passer rating record of 122.5. Rodgers led the Green Bay Packers to win Super Bowl XLV and was named Super Bowl MVP. As a result, he was named Associated Press Athlete of the Year in 2011.

Benjamin Todd "Ben" Roethlisberger (pronounced /ˈrɒθlɨsbɜrɡər/; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed Big Ben, is an American football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Steelers in the first round (11th overall) in the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at Miami University.

Roethlisberger earned the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2004 and his first Pro Bowl selection in 2007. He became the youngest Super Bowl-winning quarterback in NFL history, helping lead the Steelers, in his second professional season, to a 21–10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL at the age of 23. Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a second Super Bowl title in four seasons as they defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, 27–23, after completing a game-winning touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes in the final 35 seconds.

Roethlisberger has been one of the most efficient passers in NFL history. He currently ranks 10th all-time in NFL passer rating (92.9), 5th in yards per attempt (8.06), and 11th in completion percentage (63.24%) among quarterbacks with a minimum of 1,500 career attempts. He has the fourth highest career winning percentage (.710) as a starter in the regular season among quarterbacks with a minimum of 100 starts.

Wesley Carter "Wes" Welker (born May 1, 1981) is an American football wide receiver for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He has also played for the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins. Welker played college football at Texas Tech. He is engaged to model Anna Burns.

Despite being undrafted, Welker has had a successful career. Only one player in NFL history, Gale Sayers, had more all-purpose yards in his first three NFL seasons than Welker did with the Dolphins; Welker holds the Dolphins' all-time records for total kickoff returns, kickoff return yardage, total punt returns, and return touchdowns.

As a Patriot, Welker led the league in receptions in 2007 (tied with T.J. Houshmandzadeh), 2009 and 2011. Welker holds the four highest single-season reception totals in Patriots history, as well as four of the top ten receiving yardage totals, including the franchise record. He also holds the franchise records for most receptions in a single game, most receiving yards in a single game, and longest reception. Welker, who had three consecutive 110-reception seasons, is the only receiver in NFL history with at least 110 receptions in any three seasons. He has also been selected to the Pro Bowl, the All-Pro Team, or both, in every season of his Patriots career.