NFL Draft to continue on schedule in April with changes due to COVID-19

Concerns over COVID-19 have caused most American sports to come to a standstill. While the NFL is keeping a lot of its normal offseason schedule, the league announced Monday it will make some modifications to the 2020 NFL Draft.

The public NFL draft events planned to take place in Las Vegas next month have been canceled, but the draft will still take place. It will air on ESPN and NFL Network as scheduled from April 23-25.

"This decision reflects our foremost priority -- the health and safety of all fans and citizens," said commission Goodell. "While this outcome is disappointing both to the NFL and to the Las Vegas community, we look forward to partnering with the Raiders, the City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for a future NFL Draft as well as evaluating opportunities for other major NFL events in Las Vegas in the future, including the Super Bowl."

NFL announcement on its draft plans: pic.twitter.com/ynRG3Bw6fw
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2020

The draft taking place in Las Vegas was supposed to be the city's introduction to the NFL. The Raiders moved from Oakland to Las Vegas this offseason and will play their first game in Allegiant Stadium, which cost $1.84 billion to build, this fall.

Obviously more details will be provided at another time, but it sounds as though the draft won't include players coming out of the audience and shaking hands with Goodell. It's also customary for first-round picks to take pictures with the commissioner while holding the jerseys of their new team after getting selected. More than likely, the draft analysts won't be in Las Vegas either. Instead, expect them to be in a more confined studio space and six-feet apart from each other.

With the sports landscape looking bare in the country, it's great the NFL has found a way to keep the draft as planned, but it's going to look a little different this year.