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Previously our automated draft program allowed 30 minutes for 1st round selections and 15 minutes for picks in round 2-7. The clock ran from 10a-10p ET every day until draft completed. I think it took about 4 days.

Round 1: 30 min/pick | 2-7: 15 min<br>Clock runs 10a-10p ET

As we prepare for the upcoming April draft here, any thoughts on modifying the draft clock? A couple of options include:

- Stopping the draft at the end of the round each day, so that GMs who can't check in frequently will know the draft can't go beyond the end of the round that day. It would require some tweaks to draft scripts, but I think fairly doable. That would extend the draft to a full week with one round per day. We could modify the time for each pick accordingly if desired.

- Letting the draft run as it does now into the next rounds if clock still running, but modify the time between picks to speed things up. We have a draft queue for teams to load their players in ahead of time if not online when time to make their selections. I don't want to make it hyper fast especially in the off-season where once the draft is over there is not much else for months til games start, but we could set every pick in the draft to 15 minutes.

- We could put it to the NFL real draft times. Last year it was changed for the real draft to:
First 10 minutes
Second 7 minutes
Third-Seventh 5 minutes

That would probably have our draft over in 2 quick days also like the real thing, for better or worse.

My default position would probably be to limit it to one round per day to spread it out over the off-season a bit more, allow for more researched picks, and to not have GMs caught off-guard if the draft pace suddenly picks up and goes in the next round unexpectedly and many GMs have their draft queues emptied if picks start flying off the board quickly. The script already setup with a difference between 1st round and 2-7, so we easy enough to keep it that way even if times tweaked a little. It seemed like the 30 minutes in the first round seemed long for those waiting on GMs not there. Maybe 20 minutes 1st round and 15 minutes all other rounds.

Certainly open to feedback from everyone as we get things ready for another draft at the end of April.

Right now I have voted to keep it like it was.

But I never hold on to my draft picks long enough to actually use them.

I see the vote is very close and my vote could be swayed very easy, just need to hear some opinions on this

I'm afraid I don't have an opinion yet as I am new and this is my first off season. I'm just excited to get started.

Mixed opinions here but we will try to limit it to 1 round per day (haven't look at the technical part of that yet so that could be changed later before draft starts on 4/26) and see how that goes this year for consideration of changes next year. I believe there were some issues last year when later rounds flew by much faster and went further than expected with some teams running out of queued players.

I think this could enhance the experience with day-by-day reflection/analysis of what happened and a full night to research next round picks the next day (and re-load your queue for the next day), plus once the draft is over there really isn't a whole lot until games start so might as well lengthen it a bit and one round per day sounds like something worth trying.

We'd still allow teams to pick if they are on the clock even if the draft clock stops, so if you have pick 2.1 and the draft stopped after round 1 on that first day you could still enter your pick anytime, but wouldn't be on the clock forced to pick until things started up again the next morning.

Goodell wrote:Mixed opinions here but we will try to limit it to 1 round per day (haven't look at the technical part of that yet so that could be changed later before draft starts on 4/26) and see how that goes this year for consideration of changes next year. I believe there were some issues last year when later rounds flew by much faster and went further than expected with some teams running out of queued players.

I think this could enhance the experience with day-by-day reflection/analysis of what happened and a full night to research next round picks the next day (and re-load your queue for the next day), plus once the draft is over there really isn't a whole lot until games start so might as well lengthen it a bit and one round per day sounds like something worth trying.

We'd still allow teams to pick if they are on the clock even if the draft clock stops, so if you have pick 2.1 and the draft stopped after round 1 on that first day you could still enter your pick anytime, but wouldn't be on the clock forced to pick until things started up again the next morning.

I fully understand the sentiment, but I find it a bit disappointing since its much easier for me to set aside a day, not an entire week.

I absolutely DESPISE auto drafts, but with this format, I'd be left with no choice whatsoever.

My drafting strategy would go completely out the window if I wasn't around to move picks up and down like I normally do.

I guess if you're going to limit picks to one round per day, you might as well adjust the clock settings accordingly to give everyone ample time to actually be around to make their picks.

Understandable. We already stop the draft based upon the hour of the day (only runs from 10a-10p ET), though, and it already runs for about 4 days. We usually get about 1.5 rounds or so in a day I believe (or maybe 2 later rounds a day), so this may not be too big of a change. I don't think this should change trading up or down too much from how the draft already goes.

One of the options was speeding things up instead of slowing down to where it is knocked out in a day or two, but that hasn't gotten so much support and after the draft a very long off-season ahead with not much activity otherwise until games start up since we don't have practices to hold in July and August (and to get to July have to go through not much in May and June).

Other than lasting 3 more days, the biggest change would be guys at the top of the next round can have some certainty in knowing the draft won't speed up and blow past their picks. Hopefully it provides more room to plan out a team's picks and knowing better when they will be on the clock so more people can be there for their picks, instead of guessing when their next pick might be but not so sure and having other things in life going on (especially on work business days). Loading up the draft queue is always an option when not around, but teams now could trade a mid-round pick and move down to the start of the next round if they knew there was no way they could put any attention to the draft that day and not risk having moved down and still had the draft speed past their pick unpredictably. It gives it a little more structure and predictability around picks hopefully.

That may be more important this year because this will be the first time many GMs have TWO drafts going on at once, and much harder to keep up with where two different drafts are going then having certainty that you know it can't get past the last pick in the round and can plan around that.

But if it doesn't go well, we can look at changing the setup for next year. I don't really want to make one league draft a week after another when most players in the past want the draft as close to the real one which cheats the guys in only one league who have to wait for another to finish, and at the same time fear two leagues drafting at the same time is something to handle more cautiously this year without knowing the difficulties that may bring. This at least can stop things before getting too far as it may be harder for GMs and me to keep up with everything when we have multiple leagues drafting now.

It's something that can still be discussed up until the draft starts later this month (as it effects nothing else except the draft), but would also think we would adjust the time somewhat if stopping at one round per day -- as the option that received the most votes.

Currently 1st Round: 30 minutes
Rounds 2-7: 15 minutes

Probably more like this to extend the later round clock a little knowing it can't go into another round that day:

1st Round: 30 minutes
Rounds 2-7: 20 minutes

I am also going to attempt to give teams an option of having the system email them when they are on deck. It wouldn't automatically but teams can select that if they wish. No guarantee that the email wouldn't go into a spam filter or be delayed otherwise or something but at least better than nothing for those who would request an alert when their pick is approaching.

Is there are way to make the draft picks not consecutive but instead go off at a certain time? If we are setting aside a day per round, could we say, no matter what, pick 17 will occur between 2:10 and 2:30 no matter what. and time slot each pick that way people could plan around their picks. that might solve some scheduling problems if it is possible. just an idea.

charlie813brown wrote:Is there are way to make the draft picks not consecutive but instead go off at a certain time? If we are setting aside a day per round, could we say, no matter what, pick 17 will occur between 2:10 and 2:30 no matter what. and time slot each pick that way people could plan around their picks. that might solve some scheduling problems if it is possible. just an idea.

It is something I have thought about but not sure if doable this year in re-doing the system, or at least not without more discussion on it as would also slow things down for those who are online. Perhaps with more feedback will have another poll (after examining the technical aspects) before the draft on it.