The New Orleans Saints have chosen an in-house location for their new draft room, almost literally. The team's brass will reportedly set up shop inside a local brewery that Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson also owns.
This decision is a result of the new reality NFL teams face as the league has decided to break away from pretending things are still normal in the world and chose to cancel the draft events in Las Vegas. The 2020 NFL Draft will still happen, teams will just make their selections in remote settings.
"For every one of these teams, it's obviously going to be different than what we're used to," Saints coach Sean Payton said on a conference call, according to Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of USA Today Sports. "We're going to need to be more tech-savvy with the scouts."
Payton was one of the more notable members of the NFL who tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month. He has since recovered from the disease and insists that the team will make sure to limit the number of people in the war room so that there's enough space in the brewery for those inside to properly practice social distancing, just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends -- though the federal agency might raise an eyebrow at having a war room at all.
The first round of the NFL Draft is scheduled to take place on April 23.
