
Surprise! - More Excuses and Complaints About Virtual NFL Draft
I’m not really a conspiracy theory guy, but it doesn’t it seem like the ESPN folks are anti-draft? Like they’re hoping this thing fails so they can reschedule and push it back? It seems like every third tweet from one of their football personalities describes some sort of draft hang up or issue, like folks are worried about being hacked, or the IT guy might contract COVID-19 from setting up Dave Gettleman’s WIFI.
Now “bandwidth” is apparently an issue:
I’m texting with multiple coaches and GM’s who are on this mock draft call and everybody is saying the same thing which is band width is a problem. There are many communication issues.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 20, 2020
Well, this is why you do a test run. You try to iron out the wrinkles and figure out the issues and adjust accordingly. We’ve all seen the fancy setups of Howie Roseman and John Lynch with his five computer screens, so I can’t imagine that a limitation in resources or technology would be a thing for the all-powerful NFL.
Text from a GM during this mock draft “there are early communication issues because 32 of us GMs are on conference call and we didn’t hit mute. Sounds awful”
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 20, 2020
Okay, so you have to mute your line. That’s what you do when you’re not speaking during a conference call.
Asked a coach to describe this mock draft “You got the NFL main room-that only main people in the organization can log into, you got 15-20 scouts/ coaches on another meeting. You have to find a way to call prospects after you pick them, sign off on trades, lots of moving parts.”
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 20, 2020
Do we need to have 15-20 people in “another meeting?” You only need a handful of folks. Get Howie Roseman, Andy Weidl, Doug Pederson, Jim Schwartz, Anthony Patch, and a few other football ops guys on there. That’s something like five to seven people. The scouts have done their work already. You know the players you want. You have your draft board. Let’s fucking go.
Schefty:
Text from a participant on the NFL’s mock draft that started at 1 pm EST. “Mock draft today already technical glitch w Cincinnatis 1st pick!!! Brutal.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 20, 2020
I swear he wants this thing to be canceled. He was just out here a few weeks ago contradicting himself and talking about “carnage in the streets” because of the pandemic. It’s almost like he’s been teetering on the edge and now personal opinions are bleeding into his reporting and tweeting, which I don’t think is typically the case from him. I think Schefter is usually pretty fair and doesn’t deviate too far from the middle.
Anyway, we’ll be standing by and waiting to hear of any other draft excuses that hit the timeline. Here’s the list of complaints thus far:
- cyber security
- IT guy might get COVID
- bandwidth issues
- GMs didn’t know how to mute themselves on conference call
- too many people involved
- not important because of “carnage in the streets”
- not enough time to evaluate players/lack of private workouts
UPDATE:
Just checked back in on league’s mock draft “smooth sailing!”
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 20, 2020