NFL Draft will continue as planned but it will be closed to the public

There will be no NFL Draft in the city of Las Vegas, at least not for fans as the NFL has canceled all public draft events.

Miami Dolphins fans have been gearing up for the NFL Draft for over a year as they wanted to see the team use their draft capital and move around the boards on draft day. Now, they will have to do so from the privacy of their own home.

Roger Goodell issued a statement from the league a short while ago that says the draft events in Las Vegas will now officially be closed to the public. He did not say what the draft plans will be, yet. Will there be a draft as we typically know it? Will players attend the event and are paraded to a stage with an empty audience or will we simply see the commissioner read names off submitted cards as each pick comes in?

Those are questions we will need to wait on for answers as the league tries to figure out how best to proceed in this unprecedented event. The draft will still be televised live but what format is not known at this point.

Closing down the public events makes sense but having the players show up for the draft selection does not make a lot of sense as there will be a lot of people still attending the actual draft itself which appears to be remaining in Vegas for the moment.

The NFL will likely head back to Vegas in the near future for another draft and the league did say that they will explore the options to get the draft for the public, back to Vegas.

Honestly, if the players do not show up, we could see some of the best draft coverage from ESPN and NFL Network as the hosts will not continually break away and delay pick announcements for player interviews.

With free agency set to start on Wednesday and tampering ready to begin today, the NFL is continuing their business albeit with new operating mode.