The NFL draft presents challenges every single year. There are new ways to evaluate players, multiple teams trying to move up to get their guy, and ever-changing values of draft picks.
This year, the draft is more challenging than ever, as all of it has to be done virtually. Instead of a team gathering their coaches, owners, scouts, and general managers in one room, they are spread out across the country in different areas due to the quarantine regulations put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Many teams, analysts, and fans were worried about just how this would affect the draft process. Would it create enough chaos to throw teams off their game? Luckily, the Patriots were prepared for this scenario. Director of player personnel Nick Caserio and coach Bill Belichick were ready to draft virtually.
Caserio was asked about the first-round virtual draft experience on his post-draft video conference call with the media. Specifically, he was asked about the logistics of using technology and how it all worked with the trade that they made to move out of the first round.
“”I’d say it actually went very similar to how it goes in the draft room. We were able to connect to the league. Essentially what you have to do is just make sure both sides of the trade are coordinated,” Caserio said on a conference call Friday night. “You go through the league office, which you normally do anyways in the draft room. We’re trading with the Chargers; here are the terms. They confirm it on the other side.
“From that perspective, it went pretty smoothly. The league did a great job. We went through some dry runs, a couple. Obviously, Monday we had the league testing a few things, on our own as well, to make sure what this communication would actually look like. Look, the power could go out tomorrow and we could be doing faxes. I would say today was pretty smooth.”
He added: “IT department has done a great job here over the last few weeks just making sure it’s as seamless as possible given the circumstances.”
It’s no surprise that New England was ready for this very moment. Everything that Belichick puts his team through has shown his desire for preparation. The Patriots weren’t going to be the team that got negatively affected by a virtual draft, and Caserio confirmed that.
[vertical-gallery id=83599]