The visual of the Cincinnati Bengals drafting Joe Burrow will be quite unlike what anyone would have predicted a few months ago.
While the NFL has announced the draft will indeed occur during its originally scheduled timeframe, alterations due to coronavirus change things dramatically.
Instead of Burrow getting a trip across the water and walking to the stage to meet Roger Goodell, his big moment with the Bengals could merely happen over video conference.
Here’s one potential plan, per NBC Sports’ Peter King:
“With Roger Goodell confirming that the draft would stay on the scheduled dates of April 23-25, that’s one mystery solved. But the form it will take—the where and the how, especially—is in a nascent state. What we do know is most people normally together for the draft will be separated. It has created one interesting prospective. If you’ve done Zoom video conferencing, or you’ve watched recent nightly newscasts, maybe you’ve seen eight or 10 people on the laptop screen or the TV all ready to be called on by a host. Imagine the same thing on draft night. The NFL will send out about 50 portable camera kits with microphones to top prospects and college coaches, with better-than-FaceTime quality, so NFL draft coverage will be able to bring in, say, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow from the family home outside Athens, Ohio, when/if he’s the first pick of the Bengals. Then Burrow will be able to do his media availability with the Cincinnati press, and whatever other one-on-ones he chooses to do.”
That’s not exactly as glamorous as Burrow donning a Bengals cap on the Las Vegas strip atop a unique stage.
Then again, this altered plan will go down as one folks will never forget, too.
Regardless of the logistics, the Bengals will still nab Burrow and set off on a new era around an Ohio kid coming off one of the best seasons ever for a collegiate passer.
