4 Day Draft? Why Not More, Roger?

Accord to reports at NFL.com, Commissioner Roger Goodell is considering changing the NFL Draft process once again.

At one time in the not so distant past, the Draft was held on a Saturday and Sunday, with the first three rounds being Saturday, and rounds 4-7 being Sunday.

Then the league tried putting the first round on prime time on a Thursday, then rounds two and three on Friday, then 4-7 on Saturday. It’s worked great. It’s brought more eyes to the process of building teams.

And now Goodell wants to mess with it once again. During an interview with NFL Media, Goodell said the league was considering changing the draft to cover a four day period, instead of three, although the draft would remain at seven rounds. The league has yet to decide if the draft will remain in May or if it will move back to its more traditional April time slot. I can only assume the new model would put Round One on Thursday, Round 2/3 on Friday, Round(s) 3/4/5 on Saturday, and Round(s)5/6/7 on Sunday.

I don’t understand why Goodell is so intent on this continual tinkering with things that already work great. No one is complaining. No one thinks the Draft needs to be longer except Goodell, who maybe stands to make a few more dollars by usurping even more TV time for his product.

But if that’s the case, then why not petition the governments of the world to extend the month of May to 32 days and hold the first round of the draft over the entire month? I mean, the NFL is basically as stronger or stronger than several third-world nations.

Hold the Draft over the entire month of 32-day-May and hold one pick per day, with that pick receiving a dedicated prime time TV slot thanks to the behemoth that is ESPN. The NFL could then hold the following six rounds over the next eight weeks, making approximately four picks per day (accounting for a few compensatory picks). ESPN could block out one hour per night for the NFL Draft, and each team would have 15 minutes to select a player or make a trade. Save the final pick in the draft for the day of the Hall of Fame Game. Allow the team picking “Mr. Irrelevant” to make their pick at half-time of the Hall of Fame Game and immediately induct that player into the Hall.

Come on, Roger…stop trying to fix something that was never broken to begin with.