The Biggest Change We'd Like to See for the Future of the NFL Draft

Since there's less than no chance in you-know-what that I can convince commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL's powers that be to change the draft back to Saturday and Sunday instead of the three-day television brouhaha, it has become one more glaring problem with the National Football League draft that absolutely must be changed, and honestly I wonder why it hasn't been already.

In 2003 the Minnesota Vikings, who were on the clock with the seventh overall pick, negotiated what they believed to be a trade with the Baltimore Ravens to move down in the draft. Terms had reportedly been agreed upon, but when Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome didn't submit his approval to the NFL prior the timer expiring on the Vikings, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers rushed to the podium and got their picks in before a shocked and dismayed Vikings organization could submit its.

At the time Newsome defended his (in)actions, claiming the phone lines (there were only two at the time) were busy, telling Sports Illustrated, "The deal was not consummated. A deal is not a deal until I talk to [league official] Joel Bussert, and I never talked to Joel Bussert."

A similar gaffe happened during the 2011 NFL draft that once again involved Newsome and the Ravens.

The Ravens were in discussions with the Chicago Bears, who held the 26th pick, about moving up from their 29th slot. Terms were once again reportedly agreed upon, but once again the timer expired before the deal was phoned in to the NFL, and by the time it was, the Kansas City Chiefs had already swooped in and made their pick.

This time it was Chicago general manager Jerry Angelo who failed to pick up the phone, and while the Ravens still got the player they wanted in cornerback Jimmy Smith and Angelo apologized profusely for what he called a "mistake," he was roundly criticized, with one NFC executive telling Yahoo!'s Jason Cole:

"

I like Jerry, but what he said is BS. If you gave me your word and didn’t even call the league or didn’t call me back in time to fix the situation, that’s wrong. Dead wrong.” You should pay some penalty. I don’t know what it is, but something. I think Baltimore should have gotten a pick.

Again, this is a high-pressure situation. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, no harm, no foul.’ That could be my job on the line.

"

Commissioner Roger Goodell tried to convince the Bears to forfeit their fourth-round pick to the Ravens as compensation, but since no rule exists governing this circumstance, he had no power to force the Bears to relinquish the pick and the Bears, not surprisingly, refused.

That needs to be changed before some team decides to turn an "honest mistake" into some draft-day skulduggery.

It's almost shocking that given the cast of characters that populate the front offices of today's National Football League and the fact that no penalty is in place to punish teams for doing so that some NFL club hasn't already tried to stall a team into letting its time run out, but the thought has at least crossed one NFC executive's mind.

"

I would hope nobody would ever do that intentionally to screw somebody over, but even accidentally is really bad. You’re talking about people’s jobs being on the line. That embarrasses everybody involved. Ozzie is lucky that [Baltimore owner Steve] Bisciotti trusts him so much. For a lot of other guys, your owner might look at you like an idiot even if the other team made the mistake.

"

This can be easily fixed by implementing one of two rules.

The NFL could institute a "trade deadline" of two minutes prior to a pick's timer expiring. This would enable teams that are left holding the proverbial bag to have time to go back to plan B and make a selection before the clock hits zero.

Another option would be to penalize the team that caused the delay leading to the timer expiring in the form of a compensatory pick that would be awarded to the other team. However, as soon as you utter the term "penalty" the brows of NFL owners furrow, so it may be hard to get that one through.

Regardless of how is the problem is fixed, the fact remains that it is a problem and needs to be fixed, because if the NFL does nothing it's just a matter of time until we're all sitting around talking about the scandal that was Bill Belichick and "draftgate."

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