It didn’t take long after the NBA suspended its season, due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, to see a seismic shift in NFL offseason event plans.
Some reports had said the NFL had acted to cancel all pre-draft visits. Each team is usually allowed 30 prospect visits each offseason. As of this moment, that is not a league-wide mandate, but it could be coming.
Among scheduled visits that now may not happen was Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray, according to NFL Network’s James Palmer on Wednesday.
First round pick Kennith Murray will meet with the #texans on the 18th. After that he has roughly 15 visits planned. I do know a few of those teams in the 15 are the Ravens, Raiders, Cowboys, Cardinals. https://t.co/kpRAJOoJrp
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) March 11, 2020
Murray has been widely projected as a potential pick for the Raiders with one of their first-round selections.
Many agents have weighed in on this, and for them, this is an easy decision. For most of these prospects, there is plenty of tape out there and research already having been done for teams to make these decisions. Every year we find teams planning a good percentage of their visits seemingly to mask the one or two visits from players at whom they are actually interested in getting a closer look.
As of now the league has said they don’t plan to move the start of the league year, which opens next week, March 18. But a conference call between the commissioner’s office and league ownership to discuss further steps will occur this afternoon and there are certain to be some decisions made based on that call. Stay tuned.
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