The Cincinnati Bengals absolutely wasted time making their No. 1 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. After much delay, they picked LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.
The selection was not a surprise. What did surprise was the (lack of) speed at which the Bengals made the pick. The draft started at 8 p.m. on Thursday night and the Bengals weren’t on the board until 8:19 pm. At approximately 8:28 p.m., the television broadcasts announced the pick.
This was all according to plan, of course. The Bengals knew they were going to take Burrow. In fact, they’d told Burrow on Wednesday that he’d be the No. 1 overall pick. But it’s traditional — for the sake of TV — that teams delay the first overall pick in order to allow for more time to talk about that player.
But because the NFL was conducting a virtual draft to comply with social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, everyone made a joke about a computer malfunction.
For the most part, people were impatient to see Burrow go off the board.
That said, what else are we going to do tonight? As New Orleans Football’s Nick Underhill noted, it’s not like most of America is busy during this pandemic. Might as well milk the draft for all it’s worth.
