NFL front office personnel are required to conduct business separately from one another during the upcoming virtual NFL Draft, tasking clubs' IT professionals to replicate a war room-like setup in the homes of coaches, scouts and general managers, among others.
Rams head coach Sean McVay gave local media a preview during a video conference Tuesday morning and found his base of operations akin to a NASA employee's.
"It looks like I can set off a spaceship at this thing," McVay said.
Based on the short peek, McVay's at-home command center includes three different monitors.
Each of them house a specific draft board: offensive prospects on the left, defensive prospects in the middle and an overall draft tracker on the right, with two laptops stationed in front of them. Collectively, the five devices appeared to occupy one desk space.
Rams general manager Les Snead's setup, at least in the glimpse seen on video, initially appeared to be more simplistic. He showed off a little red notebook with pertinent information for the draft later this week, though there were also at least a couple computer screens behind him.
"It's as close to a simulation as what we would have if we were sitting in our draft room at the office," McVay said. "I can't say enough about (Rams Manager, Information Technology) Jeff Graves and Dan Dmytrisin (Director, Video) on what a job they've done of making this as smooth as a process with IT and the video."
McVay, Snead and other Rams personnel had the chance to test out their setups Monday through a practice draft. Snead said it went well from a technical standpoint but won't change their strategy.
However, should they make a trade at any point in this week's draft, the digital communications will likely force them to proceed cautiously. According to NFL Network's Aditi Kinkhabwala, the league asked teams picking 1-16 overall to conduct mock trades as part of Monday's rehearsal, just to ensure they could.
"I think if we do make a trade, as Sean mentioned earlier, that's definitely a possibility, at that point, it'll probably be a little different than just on the phone, just walking through it," Snead said. "Maybe we'll be a little more careful to make sure all parties are onboard and in the know, so we can execute a trade without a glitch."
Going virtual and working remotely has allowed the Rams to minimize distractions and operate on more efficient, detailed schedules, according to McVay. If glitches do arise during the draft, they're confident the league will be well-equipped to handle them.
In other words, it won't be rocket science.
"I think there's enough time in between picks," McVay said. "The NFL has done a great job of communicating and understanding and (giving) some flexibility if some of those things do arise."
