Due to the title of this blog, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Wow, did another freaking NFL player get suspended?” No, this news is positive. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league office have decided to shorten the time teams get during the first two rounds of the draft. Instead of the agonizing 15 minutes teams used to get to make a selection in the first round, they now only get 10. And in the second round, teams now get seven minutes instead of 10, plus the draft time will be moved from 12:00pm ET to 3:00pm ET and only the first two rounds will be conducted on the first day. Usually the first three rounds occur on the first day, but now rounds 3-7 will be moved to day two.
“We believe this will make for a more streamlined and efficient draft,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement issued during the league owners meetings in Philadelphia.
Good call. Anyone who sat through the first round of last year’s draft saw it go six hours and eight minutes – the longest first round in the history of the draft. These new changes might not be best for the teams, but they certainly are better for those fans that don’t want to donate 24 hours to watching the entire first round.