Last April, the NFL made a decision to change up its NFL Draft format: rather than taking place on Saturday and Sunday, the league moved the first round to prime time on Thursday night, the second and third rounds to Friday night, and the remaining rounds on Saturday. The move worked from the league's standpoint, as NFL Draft TV ratings were higher than ever for the 2010 NFL Draft.
But what of the effect on the draft process itself? Mike Mayock had an interesting take in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated: he believes the new three-day format helps less-prepared teams deal with the inevitable disappointments and surprises of draft weekend.
"I think some of the teams liked it because they could go home and set their board, but the interesting thing for me is that the teams that are really good at drafting and really well-prepared for every pick, I think they thought it took away part of their advantage," Mayock told SI's Richard Deitsch. "If you are a really well-prepared team, nothing throws you. But if you are not, and all of a sudden a trade happens or the guy you wanted gets selected right in front of you, now you are panicked. The well-prepared teams thrive on that kind of pressure and expect the other teams to make mistakes."
There are teams that perennially draft well, and then there are teams like our Buffalo Bills, who... well... do not. Might this three-day draft even eventually even out the disparity between teams that draft well and teams that don't?