The 2020 NFL Draft will be unlike any the league has ever staged before. It makes sense then that the event will be broadcast in a completely new way.
ESPN and the NFL Network will present a single broadcast of the event aired across both networks for the first two nights. A second presentation will be available on ABC for rounds 1-3. All three networks will air the same coverage of rounds 4-7.
ABC’s coverage will feature ESPN college football talent. The broadcast will be anchored by Race Davis, Jesse Palmer, and Maria Taylor with contributions from Todd McShay, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollock, and Tom Rinaldi.
ESPN’s broadcasters will anchor the simulcast with the NFL Network. Trey Wingo will be joined at the desk by Mel Kiper Jr, Louis Riddick, and Booger McFarland. NFL Network talent Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, Michael Irvin, and Kurt Warner will join the broadcast remotely. Suzy Kolber will conduct draftee interviews via video conference, while Chris Mortenson and Adam Schefter share the latest news and movement from their respective homes.
With the nation under varying degrees of lockdown to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NFL Draft will largely be a virtual affair this year. Commissioner Roger Goodell will announce teams’ picks from the basement of his home in New York. Several drafted players will be interviewed and have their reactions shown via web cam from their homes across the country.
The event will also serve as a fundraiser for Covid-19 relief efforts. The broadcast will coincide with a “Draft-a-Thon” which will raise money for six different nonprofits and pay tribute to healthcare workers.
