The NFL is going forward with its 2020 draft despite restrictions caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 NFL Draft, which will be held April 23-25, will no longer be held in front of a live audience in Las Vegas. It will likely be held remotely, instead.
Evaluating the 2020 NFL Draft class will be a new challenge for teams since most pro days and workouts have been canceled. NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero recapped this year’s struggles in a tweet Friday morning.
The challenge created by elimination of most pro days, workouts, etc., as team executives explain it:
30-40% of players on a team’s draft board won’t have verified measurements
15-20% won’t have a medical grade
As one exec told me: “Some teams are really gonna f*** this up.” https://t.co/nHuY5EYu25
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 27, 2020
The majority of players who were not invited to the NFL Scouting Combine won’t have verified measurements. And many players who did take part in the combine either didn’t participate in tests or have an incomplete set of data after skipping certain drills.
Also, players who were not invited to the combine won’t have undergone physical examinations with NFL teams. And players who were at the combine with injury concerns won’t be able to update their medical records with individual NFL teams.
So, that led an NFL executive to tell Pelissero, “Some teams are really gonna (expletive) this up.”
No matter what Patriots fans think of head coach/general manager Bill Belichick’s drafts, they can at least take solace in knowing he won’t completely “(expletive) this up” with many worse and more inexperienced player evaluators across the league. The Patriots will likely have to tweak their strategy since they do put some weight in a player’s testing numbers. The Patriots might simply have to rely on numbers from the combine more heavily. It’s likely that teams will draft fewer players who were not invited to the combine this season because of the restrictions.
The Patriots typically take a number of players who didn’t get the combine invite. They might simply have to take fewer risks this season and save those additions until after the draft during the rookie free-agent signing period.
It also will, as NESN NFL insider Michael Lombardi put it, put more weight in actual game film rather than workouts, testing drills or interviews.
Draft staying on course means tape will rule, not workouts. Physicals remain a huge issue for many.
— Michael Lombardi (@mlombardiNFL) March 27, 2020
The Patriots have already begun talking to prospects through FaceTime. The Patriots also meet with prospects during the college football season, at college all-star games and at the combine. With fewer post-combine in-person interviews, the Patriots will have to count on those previous player interviews.
It helps too that the Patriots have 12 picks — including four in the first two days — in this year’s draft. With more swings in this year’s draft, the Patriots have a higher probability of hits.
It will be interesting to look back at this year’s draft class in a few years to find out which teams really did “(expletive) this up.” The Patriots have had the same personnel power structure in place for more than the last decade, so they’ve been through this process countless times. They’ll just have to tweak the system this year and put more weight on certain elements than others.
