Slimmed-down draft a treat for fans but not all drafters
Except that's what happened to the Kansas City Chiefs.
When defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey fell to them at the fifth position, the Chiefs heard from New Orleans. They anticipated the call, but still, the phone didn't ring until the Chiefs were on the clock -- with Kansas City willing to listen despite having Dorsey at the top of its board.
"We didn't send in the card right away," vice president of player personnel Bill Kuharich said, "because if somebody got ridiculous we could move back."
The Saints did not get ridiculous. They wanted the fifth pick in exchange for their first, the 10th overall, a seventh-rounder and their first in 2009. Kansas City declined the offer and chose Dorsey with two minutes left.
"I didn't mind it," said Washington executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato of the experience. "I thought we'd done enough prior to working things out that we were prepared for anything. From our perspective, the 10 minutes were great."
Washington is another team that had to consider a trade, but, unlike Kansas City, the Redskins jumped. They swapped their first-rounder, the 21st overall, to Atlanta for a couple of seconds, allowing Washington to take, in order, wide receiver Devin Thomas, tight end Fred Davis and wide receiver Malcolm Kelly.
In short, Washington aced the second round.
"Personally," said one AFC general manger who asked to remain anonymous, "I wish it was like it used to be because if you're working on a trade with a few minutes to go it can be kind of hectic. Seven minutes in the second round is fine, but I'd like to see us go back to 15 in the first.
"This is a big, multi-million process, and now you're cutting five minutes out of what we've done for a year-and-a-half. The decisions you make here are very costly, and when you're trying to deal with teams on the phone and making a decision in the room, it's tough.
"At the top of the board teams are spending $20 to $30 million guaranteed, so they better get it right. Reducing the process by one third -- especially when teams are trying to make trades -- can make it chaotic for anyone up there."
If there was a complaint it was only that some clubs had trouble keeping up with trades, and that's understandable considering there were 34 of them in two days -- breaking the previous record of 28 set in 2004.
Most teams try to keep persons in their draft room apprised of what's happening in New York with updated sheets listing where clubs are positioned. But when there are eight trades in the first round, as there were Saturday, you can get left behind -- especially with less time to make a decision.
"It does make it hard to keep up," said Cerrato.
"Yeah," said Heckert, "if there was a problem that might've been it. We'd get a call from someone saying, 'Now, you're coming up next so at your spot so ...' and we'd say, 'No, we're on the clock.' "
Give clubs a year, and they'll iron out the wrinkles. In the meantime, the NFL seems to have achieved that rarest of victories: It hit on a formula that went over well with most of its members and, if the audience at Radio City was an indication, was a hit with its fans.
And here's why: Last year's draft took 18:05. This year's draft took 14:26. Nobody missed his turn, and everyone got more sleep.
"It went smoothly," Newsome said. "We got done sooner on Saturday, which allowed us to start working on the board earlier for Sunday, and we got done sooner on Sunday which allowed us to get a head start on working on free agents. And that's good."
