NFL Cancels Pre-Draft Visits — How Could This Impact the Jaguars?
The NFL made a big move on Friday as a response to the outbreak of COVID-19 as the league office officially prohibited all in-person pre-draft visits will draft-eligible players, a precautionary measure taken as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
"We have been closely monitoring developments relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and taking action based on the guidance of our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills and the medical experts at the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the memo stated. "After considering recent medical and public safety information related to COVID-19, we have decided to prohibit all in-person pre-Draft visits involving draft-eligible players effective at the end of this business day, until further notice."
The Jacksonville Jaguars already said in a statement earlier this week that traveling team personnel had been instructed to return home and staff in Jacksonville have been encouraged to work from home as precautionary measures. Now, the Jaguars will be unable to bring draft prospects in for visits until further notice.
The NFL's move to prohibit these visits also means teams can not send club personnel to any college campus to meet with a player ahead of the draft, while draft-eligible players are barred from traveling to team facilities.
Instead, teams will now have to conduct interviews with draft prospects via other means, such as telephone or video conferences. If a team does this, they will have to report to the player personnel department upon completion with the call participants, date, time, and length of the call, per the memo. These types of calls can only take place with a prospect three times in one week and can only be an hour long.
Every NFL team will be impacted by this in a big way since the draft is fewer than 50 days away. But how much could the Jaguars specifically be affected by this move? Their past usage of pre-draft visits gives us an answer.
Each team is allotted 30 pre-draft visits to their team's facilities each year. In recent years, the Jaguars have used these visits to bring in players they eventually drafted.
In 2019, the Jaguars hosted defensive end Josh Allen, who they selected at No. 7 overall, and offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor, who they traded up to No. 35 overall selection. These visits resulted in the Jaguars using their first two picks on the pair of SEC players.
In 2018, the Jaguars hosted defensive tackle Taven Bryan, who they drafted with the No. 29 selection. They also brought in safety Ronnie Harrison (No. 93 overall) and offensive lineman Will Richardson (No. 129 overall). This means three of their first four selections that year were players who visited with the team beforehand.
In 2017, the Jaguars brought in running back Leonard Fournette (No. 4 overall) and offensive tackle Cam Robinson (No. 34 overall) for pre-draft workouts, with the two players becoming their first two picks in the following draft.
The list can go on and on, but the Jaguars have used pre-draft visits to help get a feel for players they typically select with one of their top picks each year. Now, the Jaguars will have to adjust on the fly with the rest of the league and try to conduct these visits virtually.
How much the change in setting impacts the results of the conversations the Jaguars have with these prospects remains to be seen, but the indefinite prohibition of pre-draft visits will make effect the Jaguars, and every other team, one way or another.
