PBR Teams Draft Goes Mainstream with Concert by Shane Smith and The Saints

With three of the first 9 picks, all eyes are on the Kansas City Outlaws in the upcoming PBR Teams Draft.

Andrew Giangola | Mar 27, 2025

PBR

The annual PBR Teams Rider Draft is getting a fan-friendly facelift, heading to Austin, Texas May 20 with a full-fledged concert featuring the band that rocked the Gov. John Dutton’s inauguration.

“Yellowstone” fans will recognize the red-dirt country band Shane Smith & The Saints from their performance in the final season-opening episode covering the inauguration party for Montana’s fictional leader played by Kevin Costner.

In real life, following that three-song “Yellowstone” appearance, Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked one of the hardest-working bands in show biz to perform at his 2023 inauguration.

That, and headlining gigs at Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Ryman Auditorium, were good enough for the team scheduling the 2025 Draft for May 20 at ACL Live at Moody Theater to book the group that formed in Austin in 2011.

Shane Smith and the Saints band playing on the stage.

Eric Cain for PBR

During the fan-ticketed event, the league’s 10 teams, including the hometown 2024 PBR Teams Champion Austin Gamblers, will select from dozens of newly declared bull riders for the 2025 season, including a talent-packed field of international athletes.

While a concert turns the Draft – also held in Fort Worth (2023) and Nashville (2024) – into something completely different for fans, the process of teams selecting bull riders in the league’s first three seasons has not been without entertainment value.

Life moves fast. It’s easy to forget that on May 23, 2022, as the new league was holding its first draft, Cody Jesus and Joao Ricardo Vieira were initially Carolina Cowboys, proudly holding up their new baby blue jerseys at a photo shoot at Texas Live! in Arlington, Texas.

That wild night, Daylon Swearingen, a newly minted world champion at 22 years old, was a Texas Rattler, chosen third overall.

Then the ground shook. In the middle of the first of five rounds, the Cowboys and Rattlers orchestrated the first trade in PBR Teams history. And was it a doozy.

Texas sent Swearingen, Mason Taylor, who they chose at No. 14, and their thirtieth pick to Carolina for Jesus, who had been selected No. 7, Vieira (No. 7) and pick No. 26. The Rattlers would win the 2023 PBR Teams Championship.

In 2022, Daylon Swearingen, drafted by Texas, was sent to Carolina in a blockbuster first round trade. / Bull Stock Media

Clearly, the Draft has had a significant impact on each Teams season.

In 2022, the Gamblers – with a 4.7 percent of landing the coveted ping pong ball for the No. 1 pick got very lucky, and nabbed two-time PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme. They were followed by the Nashville Stampede, who picked 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco and went on to win the inaugural Teams title.

Leme was named league MVP the first two seasons. Pacheco would sign with the Gamblers mid-season in 2024, helping lead them to the 2024 championship.

In 2023, the Carolina Cowboys selected Sage Kimzey with the first overall pick. Last season, Kimzey went 13-for-23 (56.52%) in his closing role, and Carolina held the No. 1 spot in the standings for all but one day during the regular season. Following the 2024 season, he also joined the Gamblers, now helping defend their championship.

Meantime, the Kansas City Outlaws selected Cassio Dias in the first round with the 5th overall pick. Dias won the PBR individual world championship in 2024 and led the Outlaws to the 2024 regular season championship.

He was a favorite to go back-to-back for the 2025 individual Unleash The Beast title, but Cliff Hanger had other plans. At the season opener in Tucson in November, the bull flung Dias into the steel chutes, breaking his right femur. Dias remains sidelined following surgery.

In 2024, the Florida Freedom used their No. 1 overall pick to select John Crimber, who would lead the team to a third-place regular season finish and be named the league’s MVP.

Riders, including dozens of hopefuls from Brazil, can declare for the 2025 Draft until May 1.

Among the Brazilians who have declared, top picks in the three-round draft are expected to include Jhon Carlos Moreira, Alex da Silva Oliveira, Elzisclay Rodrigues dos Santos, Eudimar Novais, and Riquelme Silva dos Santos, who were evaluated at a scouting combine all 10 teams attended in February in Icem, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Additionally, rising Brazilian star Vinicius Pinheiro Correa, already riding in the U.S. at World No. 35 (10-for-24 – 46.7%), has declared for the draft.

From Australia, Macaulie and Boston Leather, popular sibling riders known as The Leather Brothers and winners of the 2023 and 2024 PBR Australia Championships, respectively, are available.

Via the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series results and trades made, the Arizona Ridge Riders will hold the No. 1 overall pick at ACL Live and select first in the second and third rounds.

The New York Mavericks will pick second in the first round, followed by the Kansas City Outlaws with picks No. 3, 4 and 9. The Missouri Thunder have the fifth pick, followed by the Texas Rattlers (No. 6.) Florida Freedom (No. 7), Austin Gamblers (No. 8), and Carolina Cowboys (No. 10).

“The Outlaws are very excited for the draft,” said Jim Smith, General Manager of the Kansas City Outlaws. “With three of the first nine picks, we have a lot of options to explore. The phone is ringing non-stop, and draft day should be very interesting.”

Shane Smith & The Saints are known for their 4-part harmonies.

At the 2025 draft, could fans see the league’s first four-way trade?

Recommended Articles