The NFL Draft taking place in a virtual setting without all teams under the same roof is forcing clubs and execs to get creative in how they prepare for the proceedings, and Redskins coach Ron Rivera "will have a football fan’s dream setup" in his house for the event, according to Sam Fortier of the WASHINGTON POST. Rivera will utilize an "80-inch TV, a 60-inch TV, three laptops, two landline phones, a stack of handwritten notes, a desktop monitor, a speaker system, a printer and a team binder." He "insisted the draft will be a family affair," as his wife, Stephanie, "will be in the war room crossing off players' names as they are picked" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/22). Rivera said the "hard part" of the setup is that there is "so much connection going on, and you're truly relying on the Internet and the WiFi staying good." Rivera said that the team's test runs "have been mostly smooth." He admitted that there was a "small hiccup in terms of getting connected at the beginning of their own walk-through, but once they did, it didn't have any issues" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 4/22).
In addition to what the Broncos and Jets are doing, here is a sampling of how teams around the NFL are setting up for the draft:
- The Bengals are on the clock, having possession of the No. 1 pick, and team Owner Mike Brown "will be ensconced in his modest East Side abode Thursday ... as player personnel director and de facto general manager Duke Tobin runs the show." Brown told the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Duke controls the screen. I'll see who Duke wants me to see."
- 49ers GM John Lynch during a recent Zoom call "panned his room to show reporters a setup that resembled a Best Buy starter kit: at least seven video screens, a few folded-up laptops and three landline telephones." According to the S.F. Chronicle, Lynch said, "It’s a lot of screens, but they’re not just wasted. They all serve a purpose and a function."
- Raiders GM Mike Mayock’s draft setup sounds "several rungs below the glitz of a Las Vegas night" that was initially planned. He told the Las Vegas Sun, "I have five huge whiteboards and I probably have 1,000 magnets with names on them all over the place. So I kind of feel like I’m sitting in the middle of a 1976 draft room and it’s kind of 'Back to the Future.'"
- Vikings GM Rick Spielman, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has a six-screen draft board inside his house that is "identical in appearance and function to the Vikings’ 40-screen smart board at the closed Eagan headquarters." The club's IT department came over the help set it up.
- Seahawks GM John Schneider claims that he has had a "couple walls in his house 'ripped up' to help create the setup that he says includes what 'feels like 25 screens.'" Meanwhile, he admitted to the Seattle Times that one of the technical hiccups from Monday's league-wide mock draft "was that he hadn’t unmuted himself when there was an initial roll call." He had to be told to unmute his phone.
- Lions Exec VP & GM Bob Quinn told ESPN that Steve Lancaster, the team's IT Director, "will be stationed in a Winnebago in the driveway of Quinn's house" for all three days of the draft in order to "troubleshoot any technical issues that could arise."
