Apologies to those who have entered this space looking for the latest and greatest projections and forecasts as to what the Dallas Cowboys are going to do come the rapidly approaching 2020 NFL Draft. There will be no such player profiling here. Instead, comes word that the league is going to be giving their best effort to make sure that things run as smoothly as possibly starting April 23, when for the first time ever, remote technology will sit at the epicenter of the selection process.
Due to the stay-at-home orders across the nation as a result of the crippling coronavirus pandemic Covid-19, teams won’t be meeting in Las Vegas to conduct the draft, nor will they be gathering at team facilities, bunkered down in their war rooms. Team personnel will have to conduct their draft remotely from their homes, teleworking like many others across the nation. The logistics of it all seem like a nightmare scenario within a blessing that there is even a draft still happening to give the public something else to pay attention to. In that vein, the league is going to do their own mock draft exercise, to try and iron out the first-time process.
Once GMs have all the technology installed to draft from their basements, expect the NFL to run multiple system tests, including a “mock draft” with all 32 teams before the real draft begins.@NFLTotalAccess @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/2D3Q4qhlAa
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 7, 2020
For now, the league is carrying forward with the idea of not much of a shift in how long teams have between picks. Teams have 10 minutes when on the clock for Thursday’s first round, seven minutes for Friday’s Round 2, and five minutes for Friday’s Round 3 and Saturday’s Rounds 4 through Round 6. Saturday’s final round, Round 7, gives four minutes between picks.
Last week, NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent floated the idea of a one-time exemption per team to add time to the clock when a trade is consummated.
Teams are used to having the gold standard of technology at their disposal in their war rooms, as shared resources such as numerous telephone lines and other digital technology that has enhanced the process over the years. Just how much of that can be duplicated from the confines of each personnel member’s homes remains to be seen.
The mock draft process will likely determine what other alterations and concessions the league will have to make. Some in the media have even floated the idea of extending the time between picks in each round and stretching the draft to as many as seven days. The league has not spoken to these possibilities publicly, however.
With so many prospects originally forgoing some of the testing at the revamped scouting combine in February — the league moved it to prime time, making some participants’ drills not occur to midnight — the cancelling of Pro Days and team facility visits has reduced the amount of information available to front offices.
Medical updates, agility testing and small-school prospects who never got a chance to shine on the big stage (such as the cancelled HBCU combine) all make for a difficult landscape for teams to gauge the field.
The draft will be simulcast by both the NFL Network and ESPN over the weekend, as opposed to the networks having competing broadcasts as normal. The first round starts Thursday, April 23 at 8 p.m. ET.
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