When the 2020 NFL Draft gets underway Thursday evening, it won't look anything like any draft in recent memory.
Instead of Roger Goodell announcing picks from the stage at Radio City Music Hall, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, or Nashville, he'll be doing so from his own basement. And instead of teams deciding which player to select from their own war rooms at team facilities, team personnel will be scattered in their own homes.
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Such is life while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected how teams have prepared for the draft as well. Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio detailed the challenges the Patriots have been dealing with in a conversation with Patriots.com's Megan O'Brien Thursday morning.
“Our team has done a great job. There’s a lot of people that have enabled us to have the daily production that we’ve had. We’ve had a number of draft meetings. I would say on a daily basis we’ve had a lot of discussions, a lot of dialogue. So instead of doing it live with one another, we’ve just been doing it through our connection," Caserio said.
“We’re able to get to a number of people. We’ve had a lot of different contact with a lot of different players, so we’ve tried to replicate our process as best we can into the setting we’re dealing with and just try and make the most of our opportunities that are in front of us each day, and really take it one day at a time. I would say we’ve been able to accumulate a lot of information, or a similar amount of information, we’re just doing it in a different fashion."
Even if the team has been able to roll with the punches during the pre-draft scouting process, how will they know what to expect when the Bengals go on the clock Thursday night as the draft gets underway? That's an entirely new challenge.
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"We're trying to replicate our draft room process in a virtual fashion," Caserio explained. "We've done a few trial runs recently in terms of how the draft communication is going to work... Working through some of those intricacies has probably been the biggest thing."
Luckily for the Patriots, Caserio and Belichick have served alongside each other in their current roles since 2008, with Caserio joining the organization in 2001. And Caserio says that familiarity will hopefully pay dividends now.
"We have a lot of experience working together. Whether or not that actually helps us on draft day, it'll be a little bit different, but I think there's an understanding of how we need to operate," Caserio said. "The biggest thing is making sure that we're communicating clearly and we get the information processed and submitted to the league in a timely fashion."
The Patriots enter the 2020 NFL Draft with a dozen selections, but with Bill Belichick's penchant for draft day trades, there should be a lot of virtual wheeling and dealing for the Patriots to navigate over the next 72 hours.