By Ken Belson | The New York Times Company
The coronavirus pandemic has upended much, but with a late summer start to the season five months away, the NFL has been one of the few major professional sports leagues to avoid postponing or canceling games.
With little else going on in sports, the league has doubled down on holding its annual three-day draft — which ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the NFL’s biggest spectacle — beginning April 23, altering only the broadcast, which will now be a TV-only studio production with top picks participating remotely.
The NFL is sticking to its self-imposed calendar even as the league instituted travel restrictions and ordered team facilities closed, forcing teams to adapt all-important evaluations that will affect their fortunes for years to come, causing worries that draft selections might go lower or higher than their available research would support.
“When we look back at the draft in two years, we’re going to see guys who were overdrafted because of their familiarity and guys who were under-drafted in later rounds or not at all because they hadn’t been seen or were injured,” said Mike Tannenbaum, an ESPN analyst and a former NFL general manager.
Full Story - Boston.com
The coronavirus pandemic has upended much, but with a late summer start to the season five months away, the NFL has been one of the few major professional sports leagues to avoid postponing or canceling games.
With little else going on in sports, the league has doubled down on holding its annual three-day draft — which ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the NFL’s biggest spectacle — beginning April 23, altering only the broadcast, which will now be a TV-only studio production with top picks participating remotely.
The NFL is sticking to its self-imposed calendar even as the league instituted travel restrictions and ordered team facilities closed, forcing teams to adapt all-important evaluations that will affect their fortunes for years to come, causing worries that draft selections might go lower or higher than their available research would support.
“When we look back at the draft in two years, we’re going to see guys who were overdrafted because of their familiarity and guys who were under-drafted in later rounds or not at all because they hadn’t been seen or were injured,” said Mike Tannenbaum, an ESPN analyst and a former NFL general manager.
Full Story - Boston.com
