If you think Tour goodies do a lot of number crunching, consider what it’s like to be an NFL coach. Cheat lists. Creating shows. Calculating odds on everything from field goals to fourth downs.
The job requires a lot of heavy lifting, and not just during the season. Things really get exciting when the draft rolls around.
Sean Payton I know the drill.
Current Denver Broncos coach and former Super Bowl-winning honcho of the New Orleans Saints, Payton joined subparagraph podcast to discuss his golf game, hanging out with Jordan Spieth and, of course, what it’s like to coach during the NFL Draft — which is happening right now in Pittsburgh.
“We started at eight o’clock this morning (in the war room), now we’re on a dinner break and we’re going to go until eight tonight,” Payton said. If not later.
With seven rounds and hundreds of prospects to consider, draft week is simply the culmination of a long process that begins the moment the NFL season ends. At that point, Payton said, the team’s brain trust has a “first board” meeting to assess the talent pool and the team’s roster needs. From these meetings emerge what are known as “stacks”—ranked lists of players at each position, along with educated guesses of the round in which they are likely to be selected.
As the draft itself approaches and scouts evaluate each player at the combine, the picture becomes clearer. Even then, though, a lot depends on how early — or late — you can pick. Teams with early first-round picks can limit their wish lists to just a few players, ensuring that at least one of them will still be available. Teams that pick later have to expand their field.
“If you go to the fifth round, now it’s going to be one of the 20 players,” Payton said. “The farther you go, it’s like a shotgun. It just spreads.”
In that regard, the Broncos have had their hands full this year, as the Broncos have to wait until the 62nd pick of the second round to make their first selection. It won’t be any easier on Saturday either.
“We’re holding the last pick of the draft, Mr. Irrelevant,” Payton said. “And the second-to-last choice, he’s Mr. Vice President Irrelevant.”
He was joking. They are by no means unimportant. Unlike the NBA, Payton said, low-round picks often make the NFL, as do a healthy number of undrafted players. That’s another way of saying that lower-round picks are scrutinized because they very well could end up on the roster, or end up as leverage in other deals down the line.
Saturday, the final day of the draft, is move day on the PGA Tour. For Payton and Co., too.
For more from Payton, you can listen to the episode here or look YouTube below.
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