ESPNs Draft Coverage

[TonyM]

I thought the draft coverage by ESPN was absolutely aweful. I want to see the commishioner or his deputy walk up the podium and make the annoucement, and then hear the commentators react to the pick with some insight and analysis. But they talked over the pick most of the times, and then didn't even discuss why it was a good/bad pick.

They did OK in round one, round two was so-so, and today the coverage has been just a discussion on what happened yesterday for the most part.

[SteelerinMD]

How many times are they going to show this?:::

Steelers started 9-3 and finished 1-5 including the playoffs. Math says that = 18 games. We went 10-6 in the regular season and lost first playoff game which equals 17 games. Somewhere we lost an extra game

[LeXX75]

Nfl network sucked just as bad....while waiting for the last Steeler pick they talked about the f'in Pats for 12 minutes...hardly a word about the Steelers pick..

[SteelerFan448]

This is the worst coverage ESPN has had in a long time. I think a lot had to do with the new draft format. Next year they'll probably either show the first round on Friday night or go back to a three round Saturday format. The shorter pick lengths were nice though.

[Crime Fighter]

Too bad Michael Irvin wasn't there! He'd come in coked up, buzzed, and just start talking and it was a riot, ROFL!

[Royd92040]

This is the worst coverage ESPN has had in a long time. I think a lot had to do with the new draft format. Next year they'll probably either show the first round on Friday night or go back to a three round Saturday format. The shorter pick lengths were nice though.


What he said.

[Spike]

Nfl network sucked just as bad....while waiting for the last Steeler pick they talked about the f'in Pats for 12 minutes...hardly a word about the Steelers pick..

Too much jibber-jabbering - keep Mike Mayock and dump all the rest.

Of course, Rich Eisen is in charge - they skip by every Steelers pick and just want to talk about the Pats, the Cowboys and the Eagles.

[JEFFRO]

My sentiments exactly. Too many talking heads. The first round was decent but from the 2nd round on it was nearly impossible to keep up with the picks and it took them about 8 to 10 picks later if they said anything about the pick you were interested in if at all.

ESPN's Draft Coverage grade F.

[Jaiyeson]

Nfl network sucked just as bad....while waiting for the last Steeler pick they talked about the f'in Pats for 12 minutes...hardly a word about the Steelers pick..

That pissed me off so much. I was yelling at the TV for Jamie Dukes to shut the fuck up. Both him and Mayock were annoying the shit out of me. Although, I thought Mayock was pretty good for a better portion of the draft.

[Doc]

The mute button was in full use all day today...

[Max Power]

The new format seems to have been a dry run for a prime time try-out. Maybe next season we will be seeing round 1 on a Friday Night? I think the interest is there. Time wise it was alright for the home viewer but to me it feel short of my expectations. Not enough time for deal brokering. Not enough time to explain the pick in detail.

The idea that the draft be an award situation is a good one. Could you imagine Pittsburgh being the host to a draft? The Fans would be incredible. Nothing like the geeks that attend the annual draft in NYC. Steelers fans are hard core and deep in knowledge.

Prime time and moving from city to city wouldn't mesh, but one or the other would be good for the NFL draft.

[Southern Steeler]

It sucked because we weren't graced with Emmitt Smith's insightful ramblings.

[Clinton]

luckily, we only had a little of Chris "tired schtick"Berman.
Everytime I hear him say, "the raaaaydahs"..I just wanna hit someone

[ekeicher16]

I agree that ESPN sucked for the little bit I saw. The NFL Network was fine with everybody except Dukes. Mayock is light years better than Kiper, but they could still do many things to improve. I definately would like to see the first round happen on friday.

[GoSteelers]

while on the way to the Fl. draft day Summit, i listened to sirius radio and the coverage on there was superb. Gil Brandt is the man when it comes to insightful knowledge on football.

[Spike]

p.s. Adam Schefter had no fucking business being a commenter on the draft.

He's Eisen's little butt boy, that's all.

[Coryea]

Day 2 on ESPN was fucking pathetic. The barely showed the draft, and just showed those 5 or 6 no bodies talking in their lounge chairs.

Was listening to the draft driving home from Pittsburgh Saturday and they had fucking Colin Cowherd on there slobbering all over the Pats, "I love watching the Patriots draft it's always so interesting"

[markymarc]

Too much jibber-jabbering - keep Mike Mayock and dump all the rest.

Of course, Rich Eisen is in charge - they skip by every Steelers pick and just want to talk about the Pats, the Cowboys and the Eagles.

I couldn't agree more. IMO Mayock is the best draft guru out there. He is fun to watch and does great analysis.

[Steelerlyn1017]

I couldn't agree more. IMO Mayock is the best draft guru out there. He is fun to watch and does great analysis.

IIRC, one of the other guys up there with him said that Mayock picked 90 out of 100 first days picks correctly. That is pretty good if you ask me.

[Tobe]

Dude, it's the draft. How exciting is it really?

[Spike]

I checked out the espn crap for about 5 minutes - when they started to thow in baseball highlights, I turned it off quick.

Both those shows are just too many assholes telling us their opinions. fuck that. I got my wn opinions - just tell me who's taken and by who.....just some player tape and move on.

One draft expert, one host and one analyst is plenty - too many yapping heads = junk = fail


I did find it funny when Eisen told Mayock he got 90 out of 100 players picked right on his Big Board - (they should of sent the rest of those yap dogs home right then) - Mayock said the NFL must have made 10 mistakes! Ha!

[Steelerlyn1017]

I will say that I watched ESPN for day one of the draft and NFL Network for day 2. I thought both networks had too many commercials and not enough post selection interview time, especially NFL Network. And NFL Network had too much crap on the screen. The 2 tickers at the bottom, the time clock up at the top....the shit on the right side of the screen...much too busy, IMHO.

[markymarc]

IIRC, one of the other guys up there with him said that Mayock picked 90 out of 100 first days picks correctly. That is pretty good if you ask me.

That is extremely good. I love watching Mayock on the NFL Network. No question he the draft guru stud others wish they could be.

[tapeANaspirin2it]

ESPN was terrible. It was like first priority was their talking and the draft was secondary. They constantly talked right over the picks and they didn't even go to the podium for some of the 1st rounders. And they weren't even discussing the actual picks for much of the time. They were off on tangents.

ESPN used to have a very simple formula
1. Discuss the team needs of team on the clock
2. Propose a few possible draft choices
3. Go to podium to hear pick announced
4. Show video of selected player while Mel breaks him down
5. React to how pick helps team, was it a good pick?
6. Discuss the team needs of the next team on the clock. Repeat.

That is the perfect format. That's what i want to hear. The best part of the draft is that EVERY TEAM is involved. ESPN treated the draft as if only a few teams are important, barely mentioning the picks of some teams and going on and on about others, the Pats and Cowboys in particular.

Day 2 was even worse. They didn't even show footage of most of the guys drafted. Hell, for halfthe guys, all they did was mention their name. They'd be talking amongst themselves then they'd say let's get you caught up and they'd show you about 9 picks you missed while they were blabbing. Then they'd only discuss maybe 1 or 2 of those players.

[Steelerlyn1017]

OH and let's not forget NFL Network's coverage of the Draft Day Room in Irving TX!!! I wanted to reach thru the TV and shove that fucking cell phone down Jerry Jones' throat.

Oh...and if I heard "Jerry Jones from Arkansas picking up Felix "the cat" Jones from Arkansas" ONE MORE TIME, I think I would have been in a crazy house by now. We. Know. Where. Jerry. Jones. Is. From. We. Don't. Care.

[SteelerFan448]

ESPN was terrible. It was like first priority was their talking and the draft was secondary. They constantly talked right over the picks and they didn't even go to the podium for some of the 1st rounders. And they weren't even discussing the actual picks for much of the time. They were off on tangents.

ESPN used to have a very simple formula
1. Discuss the team needs of team on the clock
2. Propose a few possible draft choices
3. Go to podium to hear pick announced
4. Show video of selected player while Mel breaks him down
5. React to how pick helps team, was it a good pick?
6. Discuss the team needs of the next team on the clock. Repeat.

That is the perfect format. That's what i want to hear. The best part of the draft is that EVERY TEAM is involved. ESPN treated the draft as if only a few teams are important, barely mentioning the picks of some teams and going on and on about others, the Pats and Cowboys in particular.

Day 2 was even worse. They didn't even show footage of most of the guys drafted. Hell, for halfthe guys, all they did was mention their name. They'd be talking amongst themselves then they'd say let's get you caught up and they'd show you about 9 picks you missed while they were blabbing. Then they'd only discuss maybe 1 or 2 of those players.

I don't think they knew how to react to the new format. They need to go back to what you just laid out.

[JEFFRO]

Dude, it's the draft. How exciting is it really?

Not that it is supposed to be exciting. It is supposed to be informative on the picks.

When talking heads are babbling all over the picks being made it just ruins it.

Half the time I had to wait for 3 or 4 more picks before I found out who we took.

[carbonsteel]

Is there some way we can get rid of Jamie Dukes on the NFL Network ?

Seriously the guy just ruins the whole channel for me. Eisen I can actually stomach, but Dukes, no .

[Tobe]

Half the time I had to wait for 3 or 4 more picks before I found out who we took.

That's what a laptop is for...

[Spike]

If it's any consolation, the NFL channel did a two hour draft review show last night and they finally got around to focusing on the Steelers draft - pick by pick for the first 5 rds at least.

Lots of love there from Todd McShay, NFL draft/scouts - he's pretty good - he was on Mike&Mike giving the Steelers some love too.

[jacklambert5858]

I was happy that ESPN didn't use Cold Pizza. I wish they would have McShay, Mort, Jaws, and Kiper do roundtables and leave Berman out of it. Maybe put him at a desk by himself while the others talked about team needs and player profiles.