Tensions can run high during the NFL Draft. The stakes are high and the timeline is tight, which can lead to teams sometimes being at odds with each other.
You do not often hear about a team annoying the NFL itself, but that is apparently what the Detroit Lions managed to do during the first round on Thursday. The Lions were so eager to select Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson second overall that they turned in the pick to the league within one minute of the Jacksonville Jaguars selecting Travon Walker first.
“We turned the card in so fast the league got mad at us,” a Lions official told Peter King of Football Morning in America.
Why would the NFL care so much? The draft is very television-oriented. Broadcasters want time to discuss and analyze each pick, especially in the first round. They cannot do that if teams are essentially disregarding the ten-minute clock and getting their picks in immediately. That’s especially true high up in the first round, as TV coverage would have been eager to discuss Walker to the Jaguars in depth.
The NFL doesn’t like it when things drag out too long, either. There’s a sweet spot, and the Lions did not hit it with their first pick. They almost certainly don’t care that they didn’t, either.
