Tonight’s NFL Draft will be a first of its kind as it will be conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the league made the decision last month to shift the setting from the Las Vegas Strip to the homes of Commissioner Roger Goodell and team execs, the process began by making sure all of those locations were equipped with the necessary tech. Broncos Senior VP/IT Russ Trainor said, "There's a smartphone camera set up in each home and the NFL did a great job, I'll give them kudos. They sent out little mini light kits because you got to have the lighting right. Whatever they can do better to make the lighting right from that perspective. Then each of them will have a camera and the NFL can go to them during the draft." Even the 58 prospects participating in the draft had equipment sent to them. All of the equipment also allows teams the opportunity to create content from different vantage points and use that on their websites and social media.
TEAMWORK: The league and all of its teams will be using Microsoft Teams to conduct the draft, and Jets VP/IT Tom Murphy, who spoke with THE DAILY via Teams, said that worked to the franchise's advantage because GM Joe Douglas and others were already using the platform. But because not everyone was accustomed to Teams, about 200 people needed to be trained to use it. Murphy said, "The football people had been using it and they're really comfortable with it and that's the most important thing, at least from my perspective. We want Joe to be really comfortable and confident." Meanwhile, Trainor likened their operation to NASA with there being a Plan A, Plan B and some redundancy for the sake of insurance. Once the draft begins, the Broncos will be utilizing several platforms to communicate -- Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex as well as cell phones, land line phones and video phones. There will not be audio when the broadcast cuts to Broncos President of Football Operations & GM John Elway or coach Vic Fangio. Trainor said, "They have some pretty good rigs from an IT geek standpoint; they have some good rigs with multiple six, seven, eight screens around them. You almost want to lower them into it like Eddie Van Halen's drum kit, you know what I mean?"
DRAFT-DAY HEROES: To help make things run as smoothly as possible, teams have upgraded WiFi service at some employees' homes and made sure licenses for software programs such as Excel were up to date. Coincidentally, the Broncos upgraded their VPN and firewall in late January. But what happens if there is a glitch and a coach, GM or even a team owner needs technical assistance? Murphy said, "During a regular year we're right across the hall from the draft room and my whole staff is there. I have eight people on my staff and we're right there to run into the room if something were to happen. Definitely a little more challenging in this environment." This year, someone from each team may be across the hall just not at the now-shuttered team facility. The NFL is allowing franchises to place one of its IT staff members on location with each team exec involved in the draft. These staffers will not be in the same room but they will be in the same dwelling. Elway on Monday said of the Broncos' IT unit, "It's been very difficult all the different things that they've had to do. They've been tremendous. When it comes down to the NFL and the draft, the heroes have been the IT people."
