Virtual NFL Draft setup doesn’t bother originally planned host Raiders

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, April 22, 2020 | 2 a.m.

With the Strip skyline and lights nestled as a picturesque background, the Raiders’ opening-night picks at the NFL Draft were slated to have a special introduction to their new professional home.

They’d waltz across the stage outside Caesars Forum while putting on a long-awaited, first-print Las Vegas Raiders hat and shake NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s hand in front of thousands of hometown fans. This would come only after they’d already enjoyed a ferry ride to a red-carpet photo opportunity in the middle of the Bellagio fountains.

Back in January, the mere thought of the spectacle had Raiders Owner Mark Davis grinning like he’d been just selected first overall.

“It’s kind of like waiting for Christmas,” Davis said of his anticipation for the local draft.

Now, of course, it’s not happening. The coronavirus pandemic means the 2020 NFL Draft will take place entirely in a virtual format starting at 5 p.m. Thursday night and airing on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.

The Raiders still hold a pair of first round picks — 12^th and 19^th overall — but there’s no telling when two of the prospective faces of the recently relocated franchise will first come to town. They’ll be staying at home like everyone else for the time being, even on a night like Thursday that they’ve worked toward their whole lives.

The first visual they’ll receive of their new employer will be a video-chat interface from the living rooms of general manager Mike Mayock or coach Jon Gruden. On a conference call last week, Mayock’s description of his setup sounded several rungs below the glitz of a Las Vegas night.

“I have five huge whiteboards and I probably have 1,000 magnets with names on them all over the place,” Mayock said. “So I kind of feel like I’m sitting in the middle of a 1976 draft room and it’s kind of ‘Back to the Future.’”

Mayock is loving the back-to-basics bent the draft in quaran-time practically requires. His enthusiasm is notable, because if any franchise suffered a significant loss with the event moving online, it’s the planned-host Raiders.

And yet the Raiders aren’t letting it faze them.

There’s been no indication that they were among the franchises that reportedly pushed to move back the draft back from its initial timeline. If anything, Mayock makes it sound like he might see the change in plans as a positive.

As a television draft analyst for many years, most notably on NFL Network, Mayock said he was more used to hunkering down at home and scouting players than hitting the road for pro days and workouts.

“I feel very comfortable sitting at my dining room crunching tape, calling college coaches and looking to get any advantage and any information I can in every guy we're interested in,” Mayock said.

That was about the only nugget of strategy Mayock gave away during his pre-draft media availability. He stayed coy regarding what types of players the Raiders would target early and the positions the team most needs to address.

Wide receiver? Sure, the Raiders are looking for an upgrade, but this is one of the deepest pass-catching drafts Mayock can remember with impact players potentially all the way down to the fourth round.

Linebacker? It’s also slim depth-wise but free-agent acquisitions Corey Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski might not make it a draft priority.

Cornerback? Same story, another group that may need an infusion of talent but Trayvon Mullen and Isaiah Johnson, two of last year’s draft picks, are ready to play bigger roles in the defensive backfield.

“You always have to be careful to see how the board will fall,” Mayock said. “I think the biggest mistakes people make is trying to reach for need.”

The Raiders shouldn’t have the temptation of violating that draft sin, according to Mayock, and it’s not even because they have two first-round picks. It’s more because they have three third-round selections, where from experience, Mayock believes he can find plenty of value.

“Three picks in the third is just like stealing,” Mayock said. “If we’re doing our jobs the right way, hopefully that’s three more starters.”

Mayock has lost count of how many prospects he’s spoken with through Microsoft Zoom, but said it was “pretty cool” to spend up to an hour with each of them. Video-conferencing will continue to be the extent of teams’ contacts with their draftees for the next month, as much like the draft, minicamps and training sessions will be conducted virtually.

It’s far from ideal, especially for the Raiders. Having the chance to celebrate the first-ever Las Vegas Raiders’ draft picks locally for a night before ushering them up to Alameda, Calif. — where the Raiders remain temporarily stationed until construction of their Henderson headquarters is completed this summer — set up perfectly.

But the Raiders can’t afford to dwell in past hopes and are instead making the most of new realities.

“You can go one of two ways when the NFL decreed what was going to happen here,” Mayock said. “I think you either embrace it and say, 'This is pretty freaking cool that we're just going to watch film and trust who we are as evaluators and trust in who we want in our building.' Or you can kind of look at it and say, 'Oh, well I don't have verified medicals and I don't have verified 40 (yard dashes) and I don't have verified height, weight and speed,' and panic about it. I think we as a team, as a building, we've collectively said we're going to embrace it.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.