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The 2020 NFL Draft officially kicks off on Thursday, April 23 but this year will look different than the others. For the first time in history, the NFL will be holding its draft virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Team facilities were shut down on March 26, so every team will be drafting remotely from the comfort of their own homes.
Ahead of the first round which airs on ESPN and the NFL Network on Thursday night, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave a brief tour of his setup for draft night on Good Morning America.
Now, we will just have to wait and see how many technical glitches take place throughout the night as GMs and coaches attempt to navigate the new technology.
The 2020 NFL Draft was initially expected to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 23 to April 25. Las Vegas edged out bids from cities like Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Cleveland/Canton. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the draft will be held remotely.
In recent years, the NFL has strayed from tradition and moved the draft out of New York City, where it had been held for years.
In 2015, the NFL Draft moved to Chicago, Illinois which marked the first time since 1965 that the draft was held outside of New York City. It was held at Auditorium Theatre in Grant Part which marked the first draft to feature an outdoor component. The draft returned to Chicago in 2016 after the great reception a year prior. In 2017, the draft shifted to Philadelphia where it was held on the iconic Rocky Steps outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was the most attended draft in NFL history with more than 250,000 fans.
Then, in 2018, the draft was held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and it marked more NFL first’s. It was the first time in history that the draft was held in the state of Texas, while also being the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium. The 2019 NFL Draft was held in Nashville, Tennessee.
