Is the NFL Draft watchable?

Schnerres

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I could watch it for the 1st time (it´s on german tv for the 1st time), so I have a few questions:

Do you watch it?
How long does it take (i´m speaking exclusively about Day1 here in all my questions)?
Have you ever watched it?
Which was the best Draft you´ve seen and why?
Are there any special things happening? Like Drunken Draftees with their Grandmas in their living room, GMs with ugly ties and Playboy girlfriends, someone puking due to excitement, pink hats from TV announcers, etc.?
Would you watch it at 2am(my time)? If you have to work the next day / if you´re on vacation / if you´re having a party at your house with your buddies?
 

EvilEmpire

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It's fun to see who your favorite team will pick. Especially in the first round. Wouldn't stay up too late for it though.
 

soxfan121

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I could watch it for the 1st time (it´s on german tv for the 1st time), so I have a few questions:

Do you watch it?
How long does it take (i´m speaking exclusively about Day1 here in all my questions)?
Have you ever watched it?
Which was the best Draft you´ve seen and why?
Are there any special things happening? Like Drunken Draftees with their Grandmas in their living room, GMs with ugly ties and Playboy girlfriends, someone puking due to excitement, pink hats from TV announcers, etc.?
Would you watch it at 2am(my time)? If you have to work the next day / if you´re on vacation / if you´re having a party at your house with your buddies?

Answering in order:
(thread title) No.
Not this year.
Forever. Or at least 3.5 hours.
Yes. It was better a few years ago before it got stretched into a prime time event over three days. Day 3 is worth watching if you're a hardcore NFL fan because of the video of players.
Pass. The NBA draft is infinitely more entertaining because there's so many more outrageous suits to make fun of. Fewer players attend the NFL draft.
No, it's mostly jus hairdos talking and some shitty interviews.
Absolutely not.
 

E5 Yaz

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Plus, moving it away from NY has killed the Jet Fan Drinking Game

Although we still have the Buffalo Cab Driver to look forward to
 

soxfan121

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Plus, moving it away from NY has killed the Jet Fan Drinking Game
Agreed. That was the best reason to tune into the first round.

Now, it's just how long does Roger get booed at the beginning. That's not an acceptable replacement.
 

tims4wins

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Man I remember when round 1 started at noon on Saturday, and the time limit was 15 minutes, you could basically drink a beer every pick if you wanted to. It was epic day drinking.
 

moondog80

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I can't explain why. I don't watch college football so I dimly know any of he players. But for some odd reason, I find it very, very watchable.
 

Marbleheader

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I stopped watching once they spread it out over a frigging week. It was fun to hunker down and follow on a lazy Saturday. Just like Thursday Night Football, their avarice destroyed a good product.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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I stopped watching once they spread it out over a frigging week. It was fun to hunker down and follow on a lazy Saturday. Just like Thursday Night Football, their avarice destroyed a good product.
Bingo. Draft Saturday used to be an all-time great lazy beer-drinking day. The current format makes them more money and draws more eyeballs, so I'm sure it's a big financial success for the NFL, but it sucks as an actual experience.

This year, I think there's about a 0.0% chance I spend one nanosecond watching Shamfest '16. I'd expect ratings in the Boston market are going to dip quite a bit.
 

Clears Cleaver

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It's unwatchable. ESPN talking heads add zero value, every player is ago of pick and if you follow on Twitter u know the picks well ahead of time. Watch on nfl network but really, unless u have a favorite college team, you have no idea if the player your team drafted is going to be a good fit. It's all marketing. And it takes forever.

And when it was on Saturday I used to watch it. Now I'll watch the Sox and NBA/nhl playoffs
 

j44thor

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Worst part is when teams put in rapid fire picks and they refuse to actually announce the picks until they get the requisite commercials in. They will blab on and on about a player while Twitter is 3-4 picks ahead.
If your team isn't drafting in the first 10-15 picks or has a realistic chance to trade up that high this is brutal.
 

rotundlio

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Shit, I watch the MLB draft, and those kids are ages away. The draft is well suited for streaming in the background while you dope around or accomplish shit on a computer. For me it's this or Twitch streams. Every player in the league gets drafted. Where and when can profoundly impact their career trajectory. And I for one am not acquainted with any of these guys.

This particular year it's playing out like the movie Draft Day if Draft Day had been a credible effort. The top two selections were both traded, one in the last gasp of the Philadelphia Eagles, assumedly for quarterbacks. Nobody knows which! I am certain that Todd Gurley and a wunderkid, ostensibly this "Goff," does an offense make.

Carson Wentz—I'm told he is a quarterback also. Ipso facto he is held in utmost regard. Jonah Hill from Moneyball, your newly appointed president of the Cleveland Browns, held the second overall pick and decided to color up. And by color up I mean fucking disavail the Eagles, who by bargaining into the future surrendered much more than a full draft's worth of picks for a ginger. That son of a bitch DePodesta sets a fine example for MLB. Zeke Elliott the (half-impala, half-)running back, an undervalued position in the present climate, might fall to them at number 8. They have several more deals in alignment just in case. That'd net 'em about a dozen picks. They're the lamest duck team in the league.

Will Wentz deliver with the league's dropsiest receivers? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm awaiting Mayock's four-minute synopsis of his game tape to formulate my opinion. If the Broncos land Bradford however it could spell disaster for everyone.

Tennessee is home to the finest quarterback prospect in the league, I suspect, when he's got his legs going. They hold six of the top 76 selections and a few extraneous ones next year. I must say, it is fun twisting in the wind with this league every last little thing. Color me a Titans fan! Actually, do not. That color palette is abominable. They need a redesign in the worst way, but they may get it in the cultural sense if they can surround that cerebral freak standout with some players. A literal ex-Patriot, new Titans GM Jon Robinson, holds the reigns. Draftniks inform us that picks 10 through 40 are on a gradually declining talent level, that the draft has deep depth.

If you're just a fan of the league, the draft represents a slew of the highest-impact acquisitions this offseason.
 

tmracht

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Mirroring many of responses above. The push to make it a prime time spectacle has sapped a lot of what made Saturday draft a good time.

They used to be able to spread some of the pomp and circumstance into round 2 since it was more or less a smoother flow. They could play game film and have the fluff piece since it wasn't so rushed.

Now you get the networks doing all they can to get 4 minutes of breaks in per pick. Between that and stage time and interviews there's much less time on film and metrics.

I still usually watch but it's more of a second screen thing now while I'm doing work or playing with the kid. Whereas it was a spectacle of various types previously.

To answer another of your questions: my favorite draft was the Aaron Rodgers draft. You could just watch the chip on his shoulder grow the more he was passed over. One of the few times espn did something right with capturing the draft subplot well.
 

lexrageorge

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The short answer to the OP's question is NO. It's useless drivel.

As many said, back in the day I would watch right up until the Pats made their first round pick. Usually out of morbid curiosity to see how bad the old Patriots would screw it up. One of the more humorous examples I recall watching:

http://www.prosportstransactions.com/football/DraftTrades/Years/1992.htm

The following season I watched just long enough to see if the Parcells would pick Bledsoe or Mirer. And I haven't watched it since. With the instant gratification of today's social media, I see no reason to watch anymore.
 

GregHarris

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Remember when it was on Sunday? You'd be able to turn it on and do something else like fix crap around the house. Or hell just fall asleep in the couch and wake up just before the Pats picked. I miss those days.

I don't remember the draft being on a Saturday. How long ago was that?
 
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BaseballJones

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Agreed. That was the best reason to tune into the first round.

Now, it's just how long does Roger get booed at the beginning. That's not an acceptable replacement.
As an aside, do you guys think Goodell will ever attend a game in Foxboro again?
 

NortheasternPJ

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Remember when it was on Sunday? You'd be able to turn it on and do something else like fix crap around the house. Or hell just fall asleep in the couch and wake up just before the Pats picked. I miss those days.

I don't remember the draft being on a Saturday. How long ago was that?
It was always Saturday and Sunday wasn't it? I don't remember the draft ever being a single day.
 

E5 Yaz

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Peter King:

11. You’ll see a pretty cool commercial tonight.
It’s not often that you see two-minute commercials these days, particularly on sports broadcasts. But you’ll see one tonight during the telecast of the NFL draft, produced by Gatorade as a tribute to the retiring Peyton Manning. The former quarterback is a famous letter-writer, to teammates and coaches and friends and those who’ve inspired him for any reason. Gatorade filmed a selection of recipients—Derek Jeter and Tony Dungy; the mother of Tyler Frenzel, a young Colts fan with cancer whom Manning had gotten to know; Jeff Saturday and Demaryius Thomas and others—reading letters they received from Manning over the years. One of the most touching spots, I thought, was with Chris Mortensen, the ESPN reporter who is battling cancer and who is a friend of Manning. Mortensen reads his letter and at the end stares into the camera with this advice from Manning: “Keep grinding!”
 

NortheasternPJ

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I thought it was Sunday/Monday? I distinctly remember Bledsoe being drafted on a Sunday.
Looking back, you are correct. I completely forgot that.

Edit: Looks like it moved to Saturday starting in 1995 based upon Wikipedia and looking at old calendars.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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I'm looking forward to it, just to watch the other AFC teams pick and who falls close to the Pats' picks. The way to watch it is on a computer though. I can't imagine locking this channel on a TV.
 

tims4wins

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I'm looking forward to it, just to watch the other AFC teams pick and who falls close to the Pats' picks. The way to watch it is on a computer though. I can't imagine locking this channel on a TV.
C'mon you don't have to be coy with us. "Other AFC teams"? Please

 

troparra

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This might be helpful. Here are the picks from 2015 and the time the picks were announced (times from a couple of live draft blogs I found online). The ESPN draft show started at 8pm. Just imagine Chris Berman, Mel Kiper Jr., Mike Maycock, etc. jibber-jabbering between picks, and maybe that will help you decide if it's worth watching.

1. Winston, TB, 8:13pm
2. Mariota, Ten, 8:22pm
3. Dante Fowler, Jax, 8:29pm
4. Amari Cooper, Oak, 8:34pm
5. Brandon Scherff, Wash, 8:40pm
6. Leonard Williams, NYJ, 8:47pm
7. Kevin White,Chi, 8:54pm
8. Vic Beasley, Atl, 9:02pm
9. Ereck Flowers, NYG, 9:07pm
10. Todd Gurley, Rams, 9:14pm
11. Trae Waynes, Min, 9:20pm
12. Danny Shelton, Cle, 9:27pm
13. Andrus Peat, NO, 9:35pm
14. Devante Parker, Miami, 9:44pm
15. Melvin Gordon, SD, 9:48pm
16. Kevin Johnson, Hou, 9:56pm
17. Arik Armstead, SF, 10:01pm
18. Marcus Peters, KC, 10:07pm
19. Cameron Erving, Cle, 10:14pm
20. Nelson Agholor, Phi,10:22pm
21. Cedric Ogbuehi, Cin, 10:27pm
22. Bud Dupree, Pit, 10:31pm
23. Shane Ray, Den, 10:37pm
24. DJ Humphries, AZ, 10:43pm
25. Shaq Thompson, Car, 10:50pm
26. Breshard Perriman, Bal, 10:55pm
27. Byron Jones, Dal, 11:01pm
28. Laken Tomlinson, Det, 11:04pm
29. Phillip Dorsett, Ind, 11:10pm
30. Demarious Randall, GB, 11:16pm
31. Stephone Anthony, NO, 11:22pm
32. Malcolm Brown, NE, 11:28pm

Note: Picks 29-32 may be off by a minute or two.
 

pappymojo

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An improvement that I would like to see would be for the NFL to pay for broadcast rights to include college highlights of the players.
 

Ralphwiggum

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That Jet video never gets old. The horrible picks are funny, but in fairness you could probably do that for a bunch of teams (but fuck the Jets anyway). The Jets fans straight out of central casting are what make the video great, though.
 

Dehere

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I'm annually ashamed at how much of the draft I end up watching. It's watchable I have to admit.

My favorite draft was 1998, which I attended. Saturday afternoon, snuck in a flask, Manning/Leaf, drama around Randy Moss, 4 no doubt about it Hall of Famers in the first round. It's kinda fun to go once. Wouldn't make a habit of it.
 

lexrageorge

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That Jet video never gets old. The horrible picks are funny, but in fairness you could probably do that for a bunch of teams (but fuck the Jets anyway). The Jets fans straight out of central casting are what make the video great, though.
There are 2 draft day flashbacks that never get old. That video is one. The other is the Ron Borges column claiming that Seymour and Light will both be colossal busts.