Grade the draft telecast

I switched between ESPN and NFLN. ESPN was terrible, especially Ray Lewis. It seemed like a conscious effort to stifle Kiper and any actual analysis he provides. He seemed to really clash with Gruden who basically dominated the conversation with Manziel at every pick. All Berman did was crack lame jokes and then laugh at them.
NFLN had the right idea, have Irvin say as little as possible and let Mayock run the show, providing good analysis minus the laugh tracks ESPN seemed to work for.

I normally like NFL Network better; Mayock is a better scout than Kiper, Rich Eisen is 1,000 times preferable to Chris Berman, and I like Marshall Faulk (hate Irvin, though). But Mayock tipped the JAX pick of Bortles so I turned it off for the rest of the night.

ESPN proved to be fun anyways to see the slapfight between Gruden and Kiper, plus they had highlights, and didn't have Deon Sanders. So all in all, I was pleased.

Had the sound off for both, first NFLN and then ESPN. The constant shots of Manziel were pathetic.

I was watching the stream on NFLN and having them keep going back to Millen was starting to make my ears bleed.

I usually watch NFL Network cuz I can't stand Kiper.

However I wish Mayock would stop pretending like he doesn't know the pick ahead of time and suddenly pulls it out of his ass

Pick is revealed on twitter to be Player X
Suddenly Mayock goes from talking about a team drafting a QB to "You know it wouldnt' surprise me if they took Player X here"

Watched them both.

Mayock is excellent.

Gruden is like spoiled kid who doesn't get his way - he sucks.

The whole Manzeil thing on both networks was too much.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
I was watching the stream on NFLN and having them keep going back to Millen was starting to make my ears bleed.

I watched on the xbox one app, it was the same NFLN web stream. The switching back and forth was awful. I dont currently have cable/satellite so it was the best option for me.

Gruden up Manziel's ass every time he spoke was quite annoying.

I went back and forth, too, between ESPN and NFL Network. WAY too many commercials and unnecessarily stretched out just so the NFL can make more money. I mean, when it says, 'The pick is in', why does it then take 3-4 minutes to finally disclose the pick?

Originally posted by genus49:
I usually watch NFL Network cuz I can't stand Kiper.

However I wish Mayock would stop pretending like he doesn't know the pick ahead of time and suddenly pulls it out of his ass

Pick is revealed on twitter to be Player X
Suddenly Mayock goes from talking about a team drafting a QB to "You know it wouldnt' surprise me if they took Player X here"

Eisen claimed on twitter that wasn't happening. But it sure as hell looked that way. I was mostly annoyed last night to be honest. I hate having the thing on Thursday - I have a tough work week and have to be in early on Friday I really don't get to enjoy the draft like I used to.

The red carpet deal was excessive and lame. The mom stuff felt contrived. If a guy genuinely bring his mom great. If he has to use her as a prop as dictated by the NFL that's gross.

I watched the live feed from nfl.com more than ESPN or NFL-N. NFL-N was ok. The live feed felt like public access at times.

Hopefully today goes better and quicker.

Mark Cuban noted not so long ago that the NFL is essentially "jumping the shark." I'm kinda starting to feel that way.

Originally posted by LottDMontanaO:
I went back and forth, too, between ESPN and NFL Network. WAY too many commercials and unnecessarily stretched out just so the NFL can make more money. I mean, when it says, 'The pick is in', why does it then take 3-4 minutes to finally disclose the pick?

Yes. Forgot that point. The commercials were brutal. That first round should run 2:30 - 3 hours max. Overall this felt like the least "fun" draft in a while for me. Best part was the cowboys / manziel drama.

Originally posted by RKab:

Originally posted by genus49:
I usually watch NFL Network cuz I can't stand Kiper.

However I wish Mayock would stop pretending like he doesn't know the pick ahead of time and suddenly pulls it out of his ass

Pick is revealed on twitter to be Player X
Suddenly Mayock goes from talking about a team drafting a QB to "You know it wouldnt' surprise me if they took Player X here"

Eisen claimed on twitter that wasn't happening. But it sure as hell looked that way. I was mostly annoyed last night to be honest. I hate having the thing on Thursday - I have a tough work week and have to be in early on Friday I really don't get to enjoy the draft like I used to.

The red carpet deal was excessive and lame. The mom stuff felt contrived. If a guy genuinely bring his mom great. If he has to use her as a prop as dictated by the NFL that's gross.

I watched the live feed from nfl.com more than ESPN or NFL-N. NFL-N was ok. The live feed felt like public access at times.

Hopefully today goes better and quicker.

Mark Cuban noted not so long ago that the NFL is essentially "jumping the shark." I'm kinda starting to feel that way.

Eisen is full of s**t. Mayock was glancing at his phone the whole time. It was pretty obvious. They tried to play it off, but they weren't fooling anyone.

Originally posted by RKab:

Originally posted by LottDMontanaO:
I went back and forth, too, between ESPN and NFL Network. WAY too many commercials and unnecessarily stretched out just so the NFL can make more money. I mean, when it says, 'The pick is in', why does it then take 3-4 minutes to finally disclose the pick?

Yes. Forgot that point. The commercials were brutal. That first round should run 2:30 - 3 hours max. Overall this felt like the least "fun" draft in a while for me. Best part was the cowboys / manziel drama.

The good thing about the live stream is i dont really recall any commercials. Instead they would go to live stream commentary (which was pretty bad but better than commercials).

I just do not want to hear another about Johnny Manziel for the next two days.