NFL Draft: Tightened up and now infinitely more entertaining
The NFL Draft is a haven of football fanaticism. Even if you’re a die-hard, season-ticket holder and also play in a half dozen fantasy football leagues, there’s a good chance you don’t pay too much attention to the April NFL draft in real-time. Sure, you may have alerts set up on your phone for when your team picks. Yes, you may flip on ESPN News or the NFL Network to catch a glimpse in between doing other things. But, very few people have the patience to sit through the entire draft, much less Day One, which has historically covered Rounds 1-3.
What’s the problem? Well, there a many reasons why the average fan doesn’t watch the draft, but one reason has clearly been the length of the draft proceedings. In recent years, each team got 15 minutes for their first round picks and then 10 minutes for the 2nd round. And with very few exceptions, the franchises chose to take ALL the alloted time to make their picks (you know, just in case someone was going to call up with a last minute Herschel Walker-esque trade proposal).
Here’s the good news — Roger Goodell has announced the following changes to the NFL Draft:
- Day One will only cover the first TWO rounds (versus 3)
- The draft will start at 3 pm EST instead of noon EST
- Each first round pick will have a 10-minute time limit (versus 15)
- Each second round pick will have a 7-minute time limit (versus 10)
- The remainder of the draft (Rounds 3-7) will be televised on Sunday
Take heart, Goodell continues to make strides in a lot of areas. He had enormous shoes to fill in Paul Tagliabue, but so far, so good.
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