2007 NFL Draft Thread

[Seabiscuit36]

Good IDEAS

CLOCK TIME TO BE CUT?

There are reports that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is pondering the possibility of shortening the amount of time that teams have to make their draft picks.

Per Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com, Goodell is expected to raise the issue when the NFL owners meet next week in Nashville.  The move could reduce the first-round allotment of 15 minutes to 10 minutes, and chop the second-round time from 10 minutes to seven.

And in light of a recent report from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the move to speed up the draft could be a precursor to shifting round one of the annual incoming player selection proceedings from Saturday to Friday night, in prime time.  This would drive up the ratings and, in turn, increase the advertising revenues. 

It also might help the league get NFL Network into more homes, especially since NFLN's draft coverage is much better (in our opinion) than the same-old "talk loud, say little" approach from ESPN.  (With the exception of Jamie Dukes of NFLN, who often employs the "talk loud, say nothing" strategy.)

Technically, the Commish can impose new rules on the draft without a vote from ownership.  But the unilateral use of such power could cause feathers to ruffle, so Goodell wisely is running the idea up the proverbial (or, if you went to school at Pitt, perverbial) flagpole.

If we were calling the shots on this one (and football fans everywhere should be glad we aren't), we'd leave the time limits as they are and move the first half of round one to Friday night.  Even by cutting the per-pick time in round one to ten minutes, the first round could still chew up more than five full hours.  And this means that the league would have to strike the difficult balance between starting the draft too early in the Pacific time zone, and finishing round one too late in the East. 

With only 16 picks, the maximum duration would be four hours.  But that's still a little too long.

So how about a hybrid approach?  By cutting the time limits for round one to 12 minutes and picking half of the first round on Friday night, the NFL would end up with a maximum production of 192 minutes -- or about the same time that it takes to play a prime-time game.

Moving only half of round one to Friday night also would spawn all sorts of catchy sayings for the sock puppets; the players taken would be dubbed the NFL's "Sweet Sixteen," and there would be breathless conversation in the run up to the draft as to whether a given player is good enough to be a "Friday night pick."  Also, the Brady Quinns and Aaron Rodgerseses of future drafts, who fall out of the top 16 and who are forced to wait until Saturday to be selected, would generate even more interest for the resumption of the process.

So we think the NFL is on the right track with this.  But we don't want the Saturday afternoon phase of the draft to lose too much of its appeal -- and we don't want to have to stay up until 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to find out the name of the last guy taken in round one.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I don't have a problem with that.  The 15 minute time is ridiculous.

[SunMo]

i have a problem with breaking up the first round as that article proposes, that's stupid

[Cerevant]

Yeah - the owners will never go for that - it gives the bottom half of the round too much of an advantage.  10 minutes is fine.

[ice grillin you]

But we don't want the Saturday afternoon phase of the draft to lose too much of its appeal


word up

[MDS]

Keep it on Saturday and make it 10 minutes.

[Feva]

(With the exception of Jamie Dukes of NFLN, who often employs the "talk loud, say nothing" strategy.)

Dear God... is he right on with this!  I honestly can't even watch him talk when he's on camera.  He's on morning radio here in Atlanta (well... he was the last time I listened to his station) and he wasn't doing any of that shtein.  I guess he gets on TV and figures he's got to show out to make himself a star.

He's awful.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

NFLN started out promising, but the "analysts" are mostly awful.

[Seabiscuit36]

(With the exception of Jamie Dukes of NFLN, who often employs the "talk loud, say nothing" strategy.)

Dear God... is he right on with this!  I honestly can't even watch him talk when he's on camera.  He's on morning radio here in Atlanta (well... he was the last time I listened to his station) and he wasn't doing any of that shtein.  I guess he gets on TV and figures he's got to show out to make himself a star.

He's awful.

Dukes is horrible, the guy just screams worse than Irvin.