In response to the challenges NFL teams are facing due to the coronavirus pandemic, Steelers general manager has a solution.
Steelers GM, Kevin Colbert told league officials that teams should be awarded three extra draft picks. His reasoning is due to the “inherent challenges posed by the coronavirus restrictions,” according to reports.
Colbert believes that teams will be more prone to making mistakes without additional time to evaluate prospects. However, a 10-round draft would help widen a team’s margin for error according to the GM.
“What I’ve reminded our staff, our scouts, from the very beginning of the process since the changes of our rules, I reminded them of the 1974 draft that the Steelers conducted, and they ended up with five Hall of Famers,” Colbert recently said.
“Back in that day, Art Rooney Jr., Bill Nunn and Dick Haley put together the best draft in NFL history, and they didn’t have pro days. They didn’t have combines. They relied on what they felt those guys were as football players. If we have to go into this draft with the same mentality, that’s our challenge, and we’ll do the best we can.”
Fear Of A Virtual Draft
Colbert is one of the NFL’s longest-tenured general managers. However, he isn’t the only one in the NFL that feels some type of way.
This year, the draft will be conducted virtually. NFL teams will be drafting from home. Some insiders, like Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, are concerned about being “hacked.”
“Yeah, big concern,” Harbaugh said on a Zoom call Monday, to the Baltimore Sun. “Every time I read something in, like, the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times that talks about how messed up Zoom is, or some of these other deals … I immediately text it to our IT people, and [director of football administration] Nick Matteo’s one of those guys, and they assure me that we are doing everything humanly possible.”
The league has a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. It includes an expanded regular season and postseason field that comes into effect in 2021.
The NFL will also increase team rosters from 53 to 56 players.
