Glitches already happening in trial runs for virtual NFL Draft
The 2020 NFL Draft had to make changes this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the draft will be held virtually and there’s already been some issues.
There’s been skepticism about how the 2020 NFL Draft will go being held in a virtual manner and it’s already off to a bumpy start after an early glitch in the league’s mock draft.
Adam Schefter tweeted that a “technical glitch” happened on Monday during a trial run and it happened as early as the Bengals’ No. 1 overall pick.
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
ESPN’s Dianna Russini followed up with more about “communication issues” and the structural challenges of the event.
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 (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
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 (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
The NFL also apparently isn’t immune to the work-from-home video-call scourge of people not muting themselves.
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 (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
This is concerning and is definitely the biggest worry heading into the draft.
On paper, it doesn’t feel like a virtual draft is going to be that big of a deal because that’s how the draft used to be run before it became the big event it is now. In actuality, however, this could be an interesting experiment for the NFL, as the league deals with new technology and hackers will surely be trying to hijack teams’ picks and ruin the show.
Football fans are thrilled the draft is going on as normal, but now this will be the trade off: We get the draft as we normally would, but it could be very flawed when it’s all said and done.
Having the NFL Draft go on as scheduled is a nice sense of normalcy for the rest of us, but this glitch is likely very concerning to the higher ups at the NFL. It’s good to see they’re running mocks to try and work out the kinks now, but what if something like this happens on Thursday night?
Worse yet, what if a team is greatly impacted by a hacker hijacking their draft choice? What if a trade is voided as a result of this or a team is stuck with someone they don’t want? Will Roger Goodell step in and set things straight or will the team be stuck with the pick they might not have made?
There should be some drama in this draft in more ways than one and now we have the added factor of hackers or technical glitches potentially putting things on hold. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out and if the NFL can get through seven rounds without anything that will greatly hinder the direction of the draft.
Apparently, according to Russini, things eventually got on track with Monday’s test run, so hopefully the NFL will have all of its issues sorted out by Thursday.
Just checked back in on league’s mock draft “smooth sailing!”
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) April 20, 2020
Next. A complete guide to the 2020 NFL Draft. dark
How do you see the virtual draft going for the NFL? Will it go off without a hitch or will there be a fair share of glitches?