What makes this NFL Draft different might surprise you

DENVER — The general managers and personnel executives will make their picks from home offices. The pomp, glitz and noise of the draft-night events will be replaced by the background noise provided by barking dogs, rambunctious children and the low buzz of computers and, in some cases, a dozen screens in the room.

And after having a mock first round with representatives from 31 other NFL teams on Monday, Broncos general manager John Elway believes the league is ready for a draft that will function unlike any other, but will be the same at its core, with players being selected, picks being traded and the focus on the selections, not the process.

“It should be fine, go on without a glitch,” he said.

But Elway didn’t hesitate before modifying that thought.

“I’m sure there will be a couple of glitches here and there, but for the first time, I thought it went pretty well.”

If there are glitches, they are more likely to come because the level of information does not match what it is in other years.

Take the medical examinations, for example. In an ordinary year, players could have follow-up evaluations and teams could do their own April checks to make sure players with recent injuries were healing. Now, they’ll have to lean on their Scouting Combine examinations and their own legwork, handled from a distance.

They’ll get “all the information we can,” Elway said.

However …

“We’re not going to have as much as we’ve had in the past,” Elway explained. “In some situations, there may be a little leap of faith. We’re doing the best we can to get all the medical [information] we can possibly get.”

But a case where more information isn’t necessarily better comes from the lack of in-person interactions representatives of teams had after the NFL Combine.

Ordinarily, general managers and coaches use the face-to-face time they have at the NFL Annual Meeting each March to begin laying the groundwork for potential draft deals. Some also have conversations during the course of Pro Days in March and early April. COVID-19 put an end to all that.

But Elway thinks that the absence of those conversations could clarify matters.

“If anything, there is less chatter that makes things less confusing,” he said. “With the less chatter, it’s kind of less confusing. Obviously, as everybody knows, there is always a lot of smokescreens out there this time of year. If anything, it may have eliminated some of those smokescreens.”

And that, combined with the remote nature of the draft, may actually make it more predictable than some might believe.

“The unpredictability, I guess I wouldn’t say that because maybe people may sit more in their spots than in the past,” Elway said, “and therefore [that would] make it more predictable.”

A “predictable” draft with fewer smokescreens in which teams could be taking “leaps of faith” with injured players?

That’s something different entirely — and far more impactful than the potential for any technical glitches, which can be worked around.