This year’s draft broadcast will be different from past years in many, many ways, but at least one thing will remain the same.
ESPN and NFL Network are teaming up to broadcast the draft from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut and they have also teamed up on another front. NFL senior vice president of programming and production Mark Quenzel said, via multiple reports, that reporters from both outlets have agreed not to tip picks before they are announced.
We’ve heard similar announcements for several years now and the employees of the two networks and other league partners have generally refrained from revealing the identity of picks in advance. Reporters from other outlets have not always abided by those rules, which has made Twitter a no-fly zone for those who wanted to be surprised by what they’re watching on television.
It’s not clear whether those reporters will still be able to get that information up ahead of time given the change in proceedings this season and we’re a little more than a week of finding out if that’s the case.