Jaguars and NFL move on to NFL draft sans fans in attendance

The Jacksonville Jaguars will be on the clock for the NFL Draft with the rest of the league as planned, but fans will not be in attendance and staff will be limited.

The NFL appears to be heading toward both free agency and the NFL in the same timely fashion as it was planned, according to multiple sources including Mike Garafalo of NFL Network and FanSided.com writer Mike Phillips. What this means is the Jacksonville Jaguars game plan is still full go.

After speculation that the coronavirus pandemic would push the start of the NFL season back, things are right on cue. Free agency has reportedly begun and the NFL Draft will take place in Las Vegas with one important hitch – there won’t be the massive crowds from years past. The hoards of fans will be left out of the proceedings this year to eliminate the possible spread of the illness that has already shut down the NBA and NHL and put Major League Baseball and NASCAR on hold.

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"“Considering the CDC’s recommendation that all public gatherings of more than 50 people stop for eight weeks, the draft must be altered from its typical form,” Phillips writes.“The event will be held in Las Vegas, but with the strip shutting down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, moving the public events out of Las Vegas was a no-brainer.”"

The Jaguars own 11 picks in the seven-round process, with the most recent pick, a fifth-rounder, acquired this past weekend from the Baltimore Ravens for defensive end Calais Campbell.
As a precaution, the Jaguars and the rest of the league have scaled back their work environments at the 32 stadiums in the U.S., with many non-essential positions being run from home.

This is the first time the NFL Draft will be held in Las Vegas, where the Raiders will officially play their homes games this coming season.

As Phillips points out, the decision to limit personnel at the event should be as big of a headache as it would appear since the communication between NFL franchises – like the Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field – and those who are at the actual draft site – are minimal.

"“At a minimum, the league could have {Commissioner Roger] Goodell, a few essential NFL executives, and crews from NFL Network and ESPN present, limiting the amount of personnel gathering in one place,” he adds. “Technology could also allow those networks to offer unique experiences for the draft, such as Skyping in draft picks and team executives to discuss the choices being made.”"

It becomes a look to past in how drafts were held long before they were the multi-million-dollar deal that ESPN put together in the early stages of their struggling network.