Bears general manager Ryan Pace has seven screens set up in the dining room of his Lake Bluff home, about 5 feet from his kitchen. Two computers have college video downloaded onto them. There’s a tablet for his reports and another for the 100 or so video chats he’s logged with potential picks for the NFL draft, which starts Thursday night.
None of them were any match for the vacuum cleaner.
Pace’s wife Stephanie hit Pace’s power cord while doing housework a few days ago.
“Every screen goes black,” Pace said Tuesday.
When Pace was stationed down in his basement earlier this month during the Bears’ draft prep, he could tell when his 10-year-old daughter Cardyn was on her iPad — his video chat with a prospect would lag.
The Bears’ IT department helped fix the problem, running a cord from his router down a flight of stairs and into the main-level dining room.
“So,” Pace said, “hopefully nobody trips over the cord or unplugs anything with the vacuum again. We should be in a good spot.”
At 43, Pace is closer in age to the Screentime Generation than most GMs. Like many Americans, he already has awkward work-from-home stories. Whether they end up being funny or disastrous depends on how the NFL’s virtual draft goes.
The world will find out during the first round tonight. Barring a dramatic trade, Pace won’t get to use his technology for the first time until Friday, when the Bears have two picks.
Since the NFL decided March 16 to cancel its Las Vegas extravaganza because of the coronavirus, teams have pushed the league to ensure a level playing field during the draft, process, said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business and league events. The league shut down all team facilities and ruled everyone must draft from their homes. The NFL will put computer cameras on all GMs and coaches during the draft, to make sure they stay put.
GMs will stay in contact with members of their virtual war room. The Bears’ will include coach Matt Nagy, player personnel bosses Josh Lucas and Champ Kelly, college scouting director Mark Sadowski, football administration director Joey Laine, scouts and position coaches.
O’Reilly said the act of submitting a draft pick will be familiar. GMs will, via conference call, Microsoft Teams message or email, will send their picks to NFL vice president of player personnel Ken Fiore at his home in Garden City, N.Y. Once Fiore confirms that the player is available, he’ll send the pick to commissioner Roger Goodell, who will announce the first-round selections from Bronxville, N.Y., basement.
The NFL held a mock draft Monday to test technology. While there were reports of early glitches, Pace said it went smoothly. His work-from-home setup has, too — the Bears might even use some of the video chat technology in the future.
“It’s been better and quicker and easier than I expected,” Pace said.
The draft won’t be the same, though. While Pace said the Bears haven’t scratched more players than usual from their draft list because of injuries, the lack of in-person meetings with medical staff will affect where players are drafted. With in-person offseason activities suspended indefinitely, the Bears will put a greater emphasis on a prospect’s football intelligence.
They’ve checked in with teams about trades; Pace has direct lines to each GM on his dining-room phone.
With most pro days canceled, players who weren’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine are at a disadvantage. And the scramble to sign college free agents after the draft will be more hair-on-fire than ever.
When the draft was held in Chicago, Dallas and Nashville, the NFL worried about the weather’s impact on its outdoor draft festival. This year, it’s watching weather reports in every NFL city, praying a power outage isn’t caused by a storm.
Or, you know, a vacuum cleaner.
“There will be a lot of fun stories to tell when this is all said and done,” Pace said.
