2013 Draft Date

[Strategist]

Terrible idea. Why are you in such a rush to get the draft over? I love picking my picks live but can't be on 24/7 to make sure it happens. I do not want to have to queue up my whole board.

I think the draft is perfect the way it is. To me if anything it could be a little slower.

[Jared A]

Did you read his suggestion?

Time slots wouldn't change. It just gives you the option doing an auto que if you know you're not going to be here.

[sportznut]

Did you read his suggestion?

Time slots wouldn't change. It just gives you the option doing an auto que if you know you're not going to be here.

Exactly. If you're not sure if you'll be around or not, you don't put it on auto. But there will be people in these leagues that know for a fact that they can't be around.

It keeps the draft moving (at least for awhile) for those online that are here ready to make a pick.

Eventually we'll have a person not here, and have to wait until their time slot is over, but those time slots wouldn't change.

In fact, its possible that I'm one of those people b/c when I'm at work I have limited access to the internet, but I love to draft live. So if I know that I have a pick coming up, I'm sure as hell going to attempt to get online for that time slot if I can.

[Strategist]

Oops. Lol My bad. Yeah that is a bad idea.

[Goodell]

Per popular support, our draft will start:

Sunday, April 28th

I've turned on the draft tools and uploaded basic draft pool information. We'll update some of the sorting order when the real NFL draft selections are known starting later this week. I'll also add in more specific pick windows early this week. Day 1 is round one. Day 2 are rounds 2-3. Day 3 - rounds 4-5. Day 4 - rounds 6-7.

If everyone could click on "Draft" in the top navigation and click to add a player to their draft queue, it will update the GM Directory on teams that have a player within their draft queue. That'll let me know you're aware the draft is starting in a little more than a week and that you know how to add a player to your draft queue. I'll contact those later this week who haven't started using the draft tools yet to make sure they're aware.

Send me a PM if you have questions or you can post in this thread regarding draft thoughts.

[Goodell]

As I'm having sequential draft times entered, seems like what I initially posted about 2 rounds/day after round 1 are really pushing some of the times from early to very late. Not too much later than when I'm posting this now, but depending upon a timezone could be too much. Some options for either cutting back rounds/day (as I think I might have gone back to one round a day last year after initially trying to squeeze more in) or shaving the time windows slightly by 3 minutes (so 12 minutes per pick window instead of 15). Or maybe these time windows are okay as the really late ones would only impact a couple teams at the end of rounds and the draft may even get ahead of itself to have those up earlier in the evening. But let me know if any thoughts as we finalize the draft due dates early this week. Thanks.

I'm leaning to the 12 minute time windows for rounds 2-7 (instead of 15) to keep the times more reasonable and still keeping to the 2 rounds/day after the first.

[Goodell]

As noted, I was looking at the draft times as they worked out trying to get two rounds in a day from rounds 2-7 and it was really pushing some of the picks late into the early evening. I scaled that back by shaving a couple minutes off the pick windows for those later rounds but still keeping within the general intentions I believe. Didn't get much objection/feedback on that, so pick due times have been updated now. This is a little more aggressive than previous years, but based upon past comments during the draft and things lagging as it dragged along into the late rounds thinking this will be a good minor tweak, but any feedback welcomed either toward this year before we start or comments during the draft that could potentially apply to next year as we look to improve continually.

Round 1: Day 1 (20 minute windows)
Rounds 2-3: Day 2 (12 minute windows)
Rounds 4-5: Day 3 (12 minute windows)
Rounds 6-7: Day 4 (12 minute windows)

Still would like everyone to click on the DRAFT link in the main navigation above and add at least one player to your draft queue so I know you're aware the draft is starting soon and ready to go. I'll contact those without any players in their queue this week to ensure everybody's good to go. Thanks

[Goodell]

Just an FYI head's up. There MAY be some draft-related interaction turned on as soon as tonight or into this weekend outside of just the league drafts. For the long-time members, you may remember that the FanGM homepage long ago when first launched talked about some "My Team My Way" games hopefully coming that would allow you to not just run your own sim league team as we do now, but also jump into your favorite real team and record your thoughts for what you'd do as a GM in that spot. Not just complain about why your team picked this bum, but can enter into a system who you'd have picked instead and see which would have been better in the long-run. The draft especially works well for that versus some other activities which are more difficult to operate. The idea being less "guess the pick" game than being able to measure your opinion against the real results long-term, as well as comparing your pick preference for real Team X against other fans of the team.

Because league openings are not always available (but we'd love to have something for players without a team to stay involved) and because it would also be good to give some candidates "trial runs" in some of these games before selecting them to take over an opening, GM skill games like this are what I always had in mind for a place built around putting serious fans into their dream jobs of sports team GM.

[Royce R]

Just an FYI head's up. There MAY be some draft-related interaction turned on as soon as tonight or into this weekend outside of just the league drafts. For the long-time members, you may remember that the FanGM homepage long ago when first launched talked about some "My Team My Way" games hopefully coming that would allow you to not just run your own sim league team as we do now, but also jump into your favorite real team and record your thoughts for what you'd do as a GM in that spot. The draft especially works well for that. The idea being less "guess the pick" game than being able to measure your opinion against the real results long-term over the years here and see if your pick is rated higher or not long-term than the actual pick, as well as comparing your pick preference for real Team X against other fans of the team.

Because league openings are not always available (but we'd love to have something for players without a team to stay involved) and because it would also be good to give some candidates "trial runs" in some of these games before selecting them to take over an opening, GM skill games like this are what I always had in mind for a place built around putting serious fans into their dream jobs of sports team GM.

Sounds awesome

[Goodell]

The draft has been turned on a little early this morning, so if you're the first team on the clock in your league you can enter your picks at any time now. Let me know if any problems or questions. Thanks and happy drafting.