Random thoughts on the 2026 draft presentation … Just a couple or three thoughts on the overall look and feel of this weekend’s draft. Needless to say it was well attended – good job Pittsburgh if anyone actually doubted that wouldn’t be the case – but are overall sense that the whole thing was maybe a little bit muted. There were many of the usual suspects yelling into the microphone and plenty of weirdly-dressed fans and all the stuff we have come to expect since the NFL took the draft public a few years back. But it all just seemed a little forced this week. And that’s a good thing. The draft IS boring! Its teams picking players that only really serious draft watchers really know. Indeed, I have always wondered why that even in the 7th round when they announce ‘with the 222nd pick, the Buckaroos select kicker Boris Smith from New Mexico State Teachers College’ the weirdly dressed Buckaroos’ fans go beserk as if they had any idea who the player actually was. But then of the course by the 7th round they might have had a pop or two to move things along.
We also thought that the commissioner may have caught the spirit of the moment and didn’t go overboard trying to show that he’s an everyman who’s really just one of the guys like he has at times in the past. He’s a corporate lawyer, a suit who has all the warmth and charm of a telephone pole and he just looked like a phony at times in the past when he tried to pretend he was really all warm and fuzzy. We also have a shout out for the players. In the past, we have joked that of the players that either came to the draft in person, or held events in their home towns, that the white guys dressed as if they were applying for a job as a bank clerk while the black guys dressed like they were running for pimp! This week, though, it seemed most of the guys were dressed to impress their mothers and grandmothers rather the lads in their posse. Bottom line if we’re all going to be a little more serious about the draft and maybe get the focus back on the picks, we’re all in!! See you next year in D.C.
