Rd. 1: Thurs., April 28, 8 p.m. ET
TV: 7:30-11 p.m.: NFL Draft, Round 1, (ESPN / NFL Network)
Rds. 2-3: Fri., April 29, 6 p.m. ET
TV: 6-10:30 p.m.: NFL Draft, Rounds 2-3 (ESPN / NFL Network)
Rds. 4-7: Sat., April 30, 12 ET
TV: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.: NFL Draft, Rounds 4-7 (ESPN / NFL Network)
At: Radio City Music Hall, New York
Complete draft order thru 7 rounds talkin bout tv coverage Jay Rothman calls them "the wow guys," the trio of broadcasters headlining the now downscaled main set for ESPN's coverage of the first and second round of the NFL Draft on April 28-29.
In a major distribution shift of its on-air talent, ESPN has dramatically reduced the number of front-facing (TV term!) staffers who will work the first two days of the NFL Draft. Chris Berman, Jon Gruden and Mel Kiper will be on the main set for the network's Thursday (Round 1) and Friday night (Round 2) coverage. And that's it.
"These are the guys to me, no disrespect to any of the other analysts, these are the wow guys," said Rothman, the senior coordinating producer for Monday Night Football and the ESPN executive in charge of producing the draft. "Chris is the face of the NFL studio shows. He has a passion for the draft; he's done it for 30 years. It means a lot to him. I don't have to sell you on Mel, and Jon is more dialed in than any analyst I have worked with."
The main set talent for coverage of Rounds 3-7 on Saturday (April 30) will consist of host Trey Wingo and analysts Trent Dilfer, Kiper and Todd McShay. Adam Schefter and Chris Mortenson will serve as reporters on a separate set at New York City's Radio City Music Hall for Rounds 1-7, while Suzy Kolber will do Green Room interviews for Rounds 1 and 2 and then move to Bristol to anchor a set consisting of Herm Edwards, Tedy Bruschi and Ron Jaworski.
"We're lean and mean this year," said Rothman "I've done enough of these where philosophically you want to get in front of the picks. When we are reacting to the picks, it's not as compelling a show. The more talent you have and the more analysts you have, the heavier the show is. The biggest challenge for television at the draft is the 10-minute clock, which is not really a 10-minute clock. The truth of the matter is teams don't use all that clock time."
Rothman said coverage of the first and second rounds will not be bogged down with post-pick interviews. ESPN's Saturday coverage will focus heavily on team evaluations, so expect plenty of coaches and executives to pop on. The network will have 8 to 10 reporters deployed at team sites and Rothman said he also plans to be in the homes of 25 draft prospects, featuring reaction shots and interviews .The network will also have a presence at whatever event the NFLPA holds. Jeremy Schaap will report from the NFLPA site.
Few television producers are more enthusiastic about talent than Rothman, and he has long championed Gruden the way Bundini Brown hyped Muhammad Ali. He also, not surprisingly, has nothing but great things to say about Berman.
This column has noted often -- and will continue to note -- that it views Berman as an agent of the NFL, an auxiliary public relations person for Camp Goodell and Co. (I wholeheartedly recommend public relations professors at universities show students Berman's previous draft interviews with the NFL Commissioner). The draft at its core is a news show, and would be better served by a host with journalistic instincts.
I consistently hear from readers and sports bloggers about how the show would improve with Wingo as the lead host. These people are entirely correct, and the hope is that ESPN management will one day see the sweet light. (I'll also note here that I received a ton of reader e-mails last year praising the NFL Network's draft coverage, featuring the incomparable Mike Mayock.)
"I feel between Mel and Jon, fans will get the complete comprehensive positive and negatives of these players," Rothman said. "Between Adam and Mort, I feel we are dialed into the league. I can tell you Chris has been working his ass off. These guys are not fillbusters. What they have to say is meaningful and it matters."
Here's Rothman on a couple of other interesting draft-related items.
SI.com: How will ESPN's draft coverage address the labor situation?
Rothman: I think it is fair game in this manner: First of all, I hope whatever the NFLPA has going on in New York, we will have a presence there. If they do, we will have a reporter there.
We all want football and fans are fatigued by the legalities, and those legalities are also complicated. I think where it is fair game is how it affects the draft. If there is no free agency, teams that were filling spots with free agents now have to draft with that in mind. The latter rounds become that much more important. There is more pressure on the teams to get it right. So in terms of all the machinations regarding how it affects the draft is where we want to go. To bog fans down in the technicalities of labor talk would slow down the draft. I think our pre-draft shows will relate to that as well.
SI.com: ESPN is a partner of the league. Do you feel that the coverage can be independent when it comes to analyzing the labor strife?
Rothman: We will shoot from the hip, whatever that is. Our opinion is our opinion. These guys are not going to hold back. Obviously, they are our league partners, but none of my guys will be restricted.
SI.com: This could be the last football-centric event for some time. What kind of audience to you predict the draft will get?
Rothman: I think it gets a huge number. I think people are dying for football. Without any other NFL talk, the talk has been all draft. There is nothing else to talk about except labor. We will come hot and heavy between SportsCenter specials and Gruden's QB Camp. We're going to blitz the airwaves very shortly. I think fans are dying for football, and they want to hear about these players and teams. It's going to be a big and positive effect for us.
