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The NFL Draft’s online test run on Monday didn’t appear to go as smoothly as expected, as personnel from several teams experienced glitches when going through a first-round mock draft.
According to multiple reports, general managers were becoming unnerved with the entire process as they look to navigate the murky waters of conducting the entire event online.
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“There are early communication issues because 32 of us [general managers] are on conference call and we didn’t hit mute. Sounds awful,” one general manager told ESPN.
Another general manager told the site there was an issue right off the bat.
“Mock draft today — already [a] technical glitch with Cincinnati’s first pick!!!” the general managed said.
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A head coach told ESPN things began to run smoothly after the start, a good sign after it appeared that things were not going according to plan.
However, San Francisco 49ers’ general manager John Lynch and Denver Broncos’ team president John Elway both said their draft proceedings went fine.
“I think we used it as another opportunity to focus on internally,” Lynch said. “I think the chatter out and about that I understand is going on, that it really wasn’t in a good situation, I didn’t really see that. I think early there were a couple of hitches. That’s why we do practice trial runs.”
Elway added: “The draft went smooth. It got off to a little bit of a hiccup when we first started, but other than that I thought it went really smooth. There were no problems with it, so we got more comfortable with it. So, it should be fine and go on without a glitch — I’m sure there will be a couple of glitches here and there — but actually for the first time I thought it went pretty well.”
Elway said the heroes of this draft will be the IT guys.
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The draft was originally set for Las Vegas, but the NFL canceled all public events around the draft because of the coronavirus pandemic. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell instructed teams how they should make selections.
“After consulting with medical advisers, we cannot identify an alternative that is preferable from a medical or public health perspective, given the varying needs of clubs, the need properly to screen participants, and the unique risk factors that individual club employees may face,” Goodell wrote in memo to teams.
The NFL Draft begins on April 23.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
