:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66665134/usa_today_10408832.0.jpg)
The Falcons have 1 week to get ready for the draft. 1 week. If their scouting and planning aren’t on point, then Thomas Dimitroff and Dan Quinn may want to go ahead and update their resumes. This draft is, in a word, important. Unfortunately there’s no precedent for the 2020 NFL Draft. A fully digital draft wasn’t on anyone’s radar a couple of months ago. But it’s our new reality, and the NFL is plowing ahead, notwithstanding the absurdity of it all.
The question on everyone’s mind at this point is a straightforward one: How is this going to work? We know teams aren’t going to be able to have all of their decision makers in a single room. We know the NFL is relatively confident they won’t get hacked and that everything will go off without a hitch.
But what about the “draft room” substitute? What will the Falcons’ “draft room” look like? Here’s what we know:
Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff tells Adam Schefter on podcast that group of communication for draft will be himself, Dan Quinn, Rich McKay, Arthur Blank, Anthony Robinson, and Steve Sabo. Falcons head of technology, Mike Crews, will be in Dimitroff’s basement for three days
— vaughn mcclure (@vxmcclure23) April 14, 2020
Every NFL team is allowed to have a single IT professional in the same location as the designated “decision maker” to handle any tech emergencies that arise. That will be Crews’ role. Robinson has been a Falcons scout for a decade and Sabo is their director of college scouting. Aside from the actual players, these are the 6 most important people in the organization right now.
On a personal level, I’m intensely interested in how this will all play out. I have a hard time believing there won’t be any hiccups, and the NFL’s decision to move forward with a draft during a pandemic is ... questionable. All that said, the Falcons have a game plan and their draft team in place. I’m sure they’ve spent countless hours playing out the various scenarios and I sincerely hope they are well-prepared for any eventuality.
Your thoughts, Falcoholics?