King makes an interesting point and a lot of people seem to agree. "If you're going to be making trades this year, you're going to have to be making trades before the draft, or before the pick,'' Peterson said. That's because the NFL mandates each team inform the league with the exact trade terms before a draft-day deal can be official. With the new time limits, a first-round deal would have to be agreed upon by the six- or seven-minute mark of a team's draft period and a second-round deal by the three- or four-minute mark. That would give each team, theoretically, the time to phone draft central, tell the league the correct terms, and then have the team with the pick hand the card into the league. "[Coach] Herm [Edwards] and [Personnel VP] Billy Kuharich and I will go through all the what-ifs in the days before the draft," says Peterson, "and now we'll have to include trade talks the week before the draft. We have usually done our trading during the draft. It'll just shorten things up, and it'll facilitate teams calling you earlier.'' The Jets have been laying the groundwork for draft-day trades in the four or five days before the draft for several years. Said Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum: "The new timing puts a major emphasis on being prepared, not just on draft day but in the days before. Most of your groundwork is going to have to be laid 48, 72 hours before the draft.'' "I don't think we'll find there'll be much difference in how the draft runs,'' said new St. Louis GM Billy Devaney. "If you want to trade down, you're going to start the process sooner. But let's be honest: We all know who our pick is likely to be anyway as the draft progresses. It's a good move by the league.'' http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/04/14/draft/1.html
It will be harder, but not impossible to do draft day trades. Things must go much quicker, but as someone who plans on sitting his ass down in front of the TV all day, I'll appreciate that faster picks.
Amen brother, a lot of the times teams will just use all of their time regardless... If teams want to make a trade, I'm sure it's within their skill set to get it done within the shorter time period
i can see evey pick going down to the 2 or even 1 minute mark, since most teams waited 8-11 minutes until they made a pick. All this will do is make the war rooms pick up the phones faster. No one sits and sips coffee anymore, they get the deals done. It will add efficiency to the draft. Now only if they set fixed contracts for draft picks, the day would be complete.
We might see that day come faster than we think. Polian makes a good argument why these high Draft picks could become counterproductive to struggling teams when they become busts. When that day comes, and the new re-vamped Draft Value Chart on the horizon I think will make Drafts far more enjoyable and successful for teams, players and FO's.
