NFL Draft won’t change date, events leaving Las Vegas

The NFL has decided to hold the draft as scheduled, but it will not be doing any public events in Las Vegas due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While most of the sports world has been shut down due to the coronavirus, the NFL is powering on and doing its best to maintain business as usual.

The league’s free agency period began on Monday without delay, and it appears as though the NFL Draft will also be moving forward as planned, but with some significant changes.

Considering the CDC’s recommendation that all public gatherings of more than 50 people stop for eight weeks, the draft must be altered from its typical form. The event will be held in Las Vegas, but with the strip shutting down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, moving the public events out of Las Vegas was a no-brainer.

In terms of pure personnel at the draft, that can easily be curtailed since most teams aren’t actually at the draft but rather at their facilities in a dedicated war room. Picks could be communicated electronically with Roger Goodell simply announcing them at a podium.

At minimum, the league could have Goodell, a few essential NFL executives, and crews from NFL Network and ESPN present, limiting the amount of personnel gathering in one place. Technology could also allow those networks to offer unique experiences for the draft, such as Skyping in draft picks and team executives to discuss the choices being made.

This will not be a traditional draft experience to say the least, but sports fans dying to get some sort of content will be thrilled to at least have the draft happening.

ESPN and NFL Network are also relatively creative outlets, so it could be a creative refresh for the draft broadcast, which has gotten largely formulaic over the years.