NFL Draft 2020: Why Mike Mayock, Raiders are embracing virtual event

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The NFL draft is going virtual, with teams making picks while individuals work from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Even Roger Goodell is staying put, with the NFL commissioner announcing picks from his basement.

Las Vegas Raiders brass, like every other team, will stay connected with video conferencing over secure networks during the draft itself and all of the pre-draft work done preparing for the three-day event that runs from April 23-25.

While Raiders general manager Mike Mayock has all the equipment required for such an enterprise, workspace in his Alameda home still looks like a blast from the past.

“As far as the draft is concerned, I kind of laugh because people are talking about this virtual draft and how high tech it is, but if you could see my living room right now, it’s the ultimate in low tech,” Mayock said Tuesday afternoon in a conference call. “I have five huge white boards and probably have a thousand magnets with names on them all over the place. I feel like I’m sitting in the middle of the 1976 draft room and it’s back to the future.”

The Raiders have a war room in their Alameda complex that seats a great number of people vital to the selection process, with one wall devoted to a massive draft board. They can’t use it due to the ongoing public health crisis -- they formally move into their new Henderson, Nev. complex in June -- so the Raiders are making do with the resources available.

Travel restrictions have eliminated pro days and in-person, pre-draft visits where teams can get to know players (and their health status) better to make a more informed decision during the draft. Meetings are still happening over Zoom video conferences, but the Raiders are forced to proceed with less during this unique situation.

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Mayock didn’t spend his conference call with reporters lamenting his lot. He says the Raiders are embracing this challenge and believe they’re well equipped to make the right NFL draft selections.

“You could go one of two ways here after the NFL decreed what was going to happen,” Mayock said. “You either embrace it and say that this is pretty freaking cool, watch film and trust who we are as evaluators and what we want in our building. We can do that or we could look at it and focus on not having verified medical [information] or verified 40s or measurements and panic about it. I think, as a team, we’ve decided to embrace this.”

Mayock might be more comfortable than most in this situation. His background as NFL Network’s preeminent draft analyst forced him to work in similar situations, trying to provide the best possible analysis and information without the benefit of access afforded to teams themselves.

He generally worked out of his home leading up to the draft and spent tons of time on the phone outside tentpole events of the pre-draft process. This experience isn't anything new for the respected draft evaluator. 

“To be honest, this is kind of what I’ve done for the last 20 years,” Mayock said. “I feel very comfortable sitting at my dining room crunching tape and calling college coaches while looking to get any advantage and piece of information that I can. To be honest, we’re embracing this whole thing. I think it has been a great process.”

[RELATED: Raiders' position sets Mayock up well]

He spoke in great detail about this particular pre-draft process on Tuesday, and how he thinks there is an even playing field for all teams looking for points of evaluations.

“Our coaches have done an unbelievable job of preparing information to challenge the college player via Zoom,” Mayock said “I don’t know how many we’ve done so far, but it has been pretty cool spending up to an hour with each of these individuals and getting to know them that way. From a draft process, we’re all doing it the same way. Nobody has an advantage. The Raiders are 100 percent prepared and ready to go. We’re excited about this draft. I don’t think it’s necessarily hurts anybody. We’re all playing by the same rules. The harder thing with this draft is the medical side of it, trying to verify guys who had surgery after the new year and what kind of rehab they’re having and whether they’ll be ready for training camp.”

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