When the first round of last weekend's NFL Draft was over, commissioner Roger Goodell announced that it had taken three-and-a-half hours to complete -- or three hours faster than the year before. The audience at Radio City Music Hall cheered. "I'll take that as a sign of approval," Goodell said. Not so fast, Roger. Not everyone is overjoyed, with a few NFL clubs wishing the draft went back to its old format. Of course, that's not about to happen -- not after the runaway success of its first run -- but it does make you realize that, as the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time. "I don't like it," said San Diego general manager A.J. Smith, who was opposed to the idea from the beginning, "because I just want five minutes. It didn't affect anything, but I like it (the old way) because I'd have five more minutes. I don't know if I would need them, but I do know that if I did I'd have five more minutes." That makes sense. With more time you can consider more options -- particularly trades -- but that's not necessarily a good idea. In the 2003 draft, for instance, the Minnesota Vikings were unable to complete a deal with Baltimore before their 15 minutes elapsed. So they passed on the pick, with Jacksonville and Carolina cutting in front of them before the Vikings woke up. link to rest of story http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/10806747/1
Please Teams would take the whole amount to see if anyone calls. They would have their pick in mind and use the whole time to see if a team wants to trade up.
Teams are always going to ask for additional time, because it just makes sense to do so. There's a tiny chance someone may offer them an 11th hour deal, and I can see how some may feel they're loosing that opportunity. I don't think that's the case however - I think those 11th hour deals are coming in more fast and furious than under the old format. I heard one of the stat-heads on ESPN over the weekend say that this draft had the most trades ever. That in itself speaks volumes for how well the new format worked.
Ireland said he liked it and it did not effect our draft that much. I liked it as well. I think everyone was happy with it overall except for a few Debbie Downers. And its funny that some teams point out the fact that it made it harder to make trades when in fact (I think) the record for trades was set during this draft. There were 8 trades in the 1st round.
I wished it started a little earlier, but aside from that I think it was pretty good. This move was made for the fans though, NOT the teams, so AJ can keep on whining. The NFL is pushing the draft a bigtime fan friendly oasis of football in the middle of the offseason. To have a 7 hour first round was just insanity and needed to be changed, good job on that one by Goodell. The only thing I didnt like was that some teams who went quicker, it seemed we didnt get quite the analysis we used to, especially in the second round, but most people wouldnt miss hearing Mel and/or mayock going on about stuff. And frankly, ESPN needs to focus more on Mel and McShay than guys like Meshawn and Steve Young.