What will an all-virtual 2020 NFL Draft look like for Chiefs?

Chiefs GM Brett Veach spoke on some of the challenges and idiosyncrasies of an all-virtual NFL Draft.

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As the Kansas City Chiefs get prepared for the 2020 NFL Draft, they’re facing challenges they’ve never faced before. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the draft to an all-virtual format. For the first time in the history of the league, they’ll rely on technology to connect everyone together for the draft. What could possibly go wrong?

While things were fairly uncertain to start, general manager Brett Veach has found that he’s had plenty of time to adjust to the new format.

“When we got wind of an all-virtual draft, I think there were a lot of questions in how things were going to run,” Veach said during his pre-draft press conference. “But quite honestly the last two or three weeks everything has been virtual. Our ability to communicate with players, coaches, go through stats, go through certain situations throughout the draft it’s almost becoming commonplace now where we just wake up, come down and we have the ability to record all of the players that we interview. So there’s a lot of times where I’m jumping on these chats live and interacting and there’s a lot of times where I’m working through some video and I’m working through some other stuff where I can come back in the morning and just click on yesterday’s videos and watch that. There are certainly unique challenges, but those challenges are the same for all 32 teams and I think we’re prepared. And again, it’s almost the norm right now.”

Veach credits the IT and Video department for making things so easy on coaching and scouting staff.

“I think when it first started there was that phase of two or three days where it didn’t feel like you were getting the production you wanted just because you were transitioning,” Veach said. “But really it goes back to Kevin Higgins and our IT department, Pat Brazil and our Video department. Once you work out the kinks after the first two or three days, it honestly felt like I was at the office. Instead of me talking to my guys right there, they were just on the video screen. The first two or three days, it was a little ‘this isn’t working,’ and ‘I’m getting a slow feed.’ I think it’s one of those deals that had the league just dropped it on us this week – virtual draft – that you’d be really worried about a lot of things, but I think the fact that we have so much time to work through all the issues that may come up, we’ve gone through different scenarios and we’ve had a little time now to work through some of the technical stuff, but like you said, the first few days, it was a little challenging. But again, everybody was on the same format and had the same issues, but really the last week and a half, two weeks, it’s been rather smooth…”

Some of those issues and worries that Veach spoke of came up during the virtual mock draft that took place on Monday. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, there was a technical glitch that held things up during the first pick of the draft.

From technical glitches to audio gaffes, the 2020 NFL Draft will have its fair share of hiccups. Thankfully, the NFL has implemented a system in which they can pause the draft in case of a technical malfunction.

The Chiefs coaching staff and scouting staff will all be relegated to their respective homes for the draft. They will have some extra muscle around if anything goes wrong on the technical side or in real life.

“The league allows an IT person to be present at your house and a security guy there just in case people don’t like your picks, they’re not knocking on your door or ringing the doorbell,” Veach said. “Every person is allowed a security person, an IT person.”

Veach went into detail about what his IT person might help him with during the course of the draft.

“I have a guy, Ryan Poles who has done a tremendous job at taking the lead on this,” Veach explained. “He’s been able to kind of like control who comes in and who comes out of the room, so if I say ‘Ryan, grab me Rick (Burkholder).’ He can bring Rick into a chatroom. If I say, ‘Ryan, grab me an area scout,’ he could bring one in. The things that I want to maintain is just that ability. I don’t want to be sitting there pulling people into the draft rooms, calling people. I think we have a plan where we have a computer dedicated to Clark and Mark (Donovan) and Andy and we can talk through some big picture stuff. And then Ryan Poles has the ability to bring in coordinators, bring in coaches, bring in medical very quickly.”

While Veach expects everything to go smoothly for the Chiefs, he’s a little concerned about communication effectiveness and specifically how that will impact trades.

“One thing that I think every team is most concerned about is just the flow and the effectiveness of communication,” Veach said. “If you’re on the clock and you’re working through your scenarios, then you finally come up with, ‘OK, we like this guy. We don’t like any of these trades. Or, we like this trade, and we want to do this trade.’ Be that as it may, I think the scenario that we’re all kind of playing through our mind is when you’re on the clock and you’re about to turn a card in and then with 45 seconds left, a team comes in and presents a really interesting trade. When you’re in the office, you can look to a guy. Just making sure that we don’t have a slow connection at 45 seconds. So, that’s a little bit of a concern, just that last-minute trade that you get the phone call on the clock. But again, the league has done a great job of just making sure that if anything crazy happens with technical difficulties, just call them and they’re going to be understanding. I don’t think they’re trying to have teams be in a compromised position where they’re losing picks or teams are jumping up ahead of them. So, I think that’s the big scenario. Just being on the clock with little time and a last-second trade comes in. We’re going to do some trials of that.”

The Chiefs are trying to mimic the process of a regular draft as best they can, but there’s only so much you can prepare for in what is sure to be an entirely new experience. In his final note on the all-virtual draft, Veach recognized and embraced the unknown that awaits.

“You really won’t know until the lights come on as to how that’s all going to work.”

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