Draft Boards Aren’t Set; “You Don’t Ever Get, ‘No.'”
April 20th, 2024
“Stop calling about Kyle Trask. No deal!”
Joe loves, loves, loves the in-season Hard Knocks series. Hopefully, this is the year the Bucs step up and peel back the curtain for the world to see.
There’s also another series Joe can’t wait to watch as it enters its second season.
That would be NFL Draft: The Pick Is In. The documentary debuted last season and chronicled the draft war rooms of the Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers during the 2023 draft.
Roku Channel aired The Pick Is In and renewed it for 2024. Participating teams have not been revealed. But if the Bucs aren’t one of those teams, Joe will be wondering long and hard about whether the Bucs’ stated desire to be more respected nationally is nothing more than fluff for the cameras.
Speaking of cameras, Colts GM Chris Ballard loves them and he is one of the most candid GMs in the NFL.
He hopped on The Rich Eisen Show on Friday and answered questions about the draft.
Bursting the bubbles of amateur and professional draft gurus nearly everywhere, Ballard said draft boards around the league aren’t set yet because teams never close the door on gathering information. He said the Colts fully set their board the night before the draft.
“The cement is not dry until we get to draft day. … but up until that point we are having major discussions,” he said.
He also added that lots of phone calls are happening now between teams about possible trades, but noted that GMs very, very rarely flat out slam the door a potential trade. “You don’t ever get, ‘No,'” Ballard said, because teams don’t want to close a door unless they have to.
Ballard added that most real trade discussions originate on the day of the draft.
April 20th, 2024 at 9:19 pm
1…2…3..what are we fighting for?
April 20th, 2024 at 9:32 pm
I hope the Bucs are not one of those teams for The Pick Is In. I want only Bucs employees that belong there present!
April 20th, 2024 at 9:46 pm
Crazy thought. I hope the BUCS are never on one of those shows, it seems like nothing but a distraction, especially hard knocks.
April 20th, 2024 at 9:54 pm
I imagine Licht is having some extra predraft conversations with Pittsburgh (#20) and Miami (#21) about the possibility and price of moving up to one of those spots if either Latu or Verse were to make it out of the teens undrafted.
I enjoyed watching the Bucs on Hard Knocks.
Unfortunately, Hard Knocks was probably the highlight of the 2017 season….
April 20th, 2024 at 10:51 pm
This has nothing to do with nothing, but my daughter is a Freshman at OU and works at Dutch Bros. She served the Boz this morning. Anyone who still claims that Bo Jackson ran him over is wrong. If they’d been on the 50 instead of the goal line, it would’ve been a 3 yard gain. Boz was moving laterally, and Bo had a head full of steam. The Boz is still the only two-time Butkus Award winner. The Seattle Seahawks medical staff retired him. He didn’t retire. He wasn’t a flop!!! Just saying.🤣 Boomer!
April 20th, 2024 at 11:12 pm
Ps, I loved Bo Jackson, too. I really wish he hadn’t been medically retired as well. Those were two of my favorite athletes during my childhood. (Besides Dan Marino, Dwight Gooden, and Daryll Strawberry.) Yes, I’m almost 50.
April 21st, 2024 at 3:32 am
I saw Daryll Strawberry (1st arrest on Apr 16, 1999) get arrested on Kennedy Blvd. I lived on North A at the time and took my dog out for a walk to see what was going on. He kept asking the cop ‘how can we make this go away’ over and over. He was scary wasted.
April 21st, 2024 at 7:43 am
The draft boards might be set for a short time but as soon as the names begin to come off every board begins to change, the emotions in every draft room has to be off the charts despite their facade of cool calm and collected
April 21st, 2024 at 9:11 am
Gooden was a few years behind me at Hillsborough, SOMEhow managed to acquire a Mercedes while there…
April 21st, 2024 at 1:57 pm
The Bucs should avoid those shows like the plague. Big distraction and unnecessary drama. Lets keep our focus where it belongs.
April 21st, 2024 at 8:35 pm
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a d_m. Our next stop is Viet Nam 😂