Less than two weeks remain until the NFL’s virtual draft. Some additional details of the unique event emerged Monday.
- Roger Goodell will announce the picks from the basement of his Westchester County, N.Y., home, Peter King of NBC Sports notes. This will occur on a neutral broadcast, as opposed to ESPN and NFL Network conducting separate airings. ESPN and NFL Network will simulcast the entire draft.
- Each team will have a designated drafter that will be connected to the league’s encrypted Microsoft Teams channel, King adds. NFL VP of player personnel Ken Fiore will communicate with teams regarding who will be on the clock when while also serving as an emergency contact if a team cannot make a pick through the Microsoft Teams channel. While each team will still have 10 minutes to pick during the first round, King confirms the NFL will be flexible if a communication issue affects a team’s process.
- A separate, secure line will be in place for draft-day trades, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, adding that multiple team executives can be on those calls at once. The mock draft each of the 32 teams will go through next week will include fake trades as well to test this system.
- IT personnel have completed their work, installing cameras in the homes of each GM and head coach, Rapoport adds (via Twitter). GMs are permitted to have one IT person in their home during the draft, per Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff (via King).
- The league reached out to 58 prospects and a few college coaches, and cameras will be installed in the homes where they’ll watch the draft, King notes. No more than six people can be at players’ respective draft-watching events. This is certainly way down from the number of family members and friends who usually gather for these viewings, but the COVID-19 pandemic has obviously changed just about everything about the draft — except for the dates — this year.
Fun!
I’ve never looked forward to any draft as much as this one based on it being like a sporting event. Man I miss sports!
Can’t wait, less than two weeks baby!
Missing on ABC coverage will be College Coaches. ESPN’s Ian Rapoport and Charlie Davis and Chris Rose.
Part of me hopes this fails miserably and the league has to resort to free for all signings like those that occurred during the AFL-NFL war of the late 60s. Those were fun times.
“No more than six people can be at players’ respective draft-watching events”
…families of 8….
How does the dry run “mock draft” work in order to not tip ones hand? One of those useless “Do-Over’ Drafts using 2019 players might work.
This could otherwise turn the actual draft into the poison cup scene from The Princess Bride.
Ryan Pace would prefer using 2017 players for that “Do-Over” draft so he can select someone other than Trubisky.