Unlike baseball, the NFL does not believe in a protracted "Hot Stove League" — and they even have their own stand-alone network on which to broadcast it: NFL Network — Channel 180 on most cable packages.
(It wasn't always this way: in the years immediately after the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the draft was held the week after the Pro Bowl — which until recently was played the week after the Super Bowl.)
Only a few days from now, the proverbial festivities kick-off with the annual scouting combine, always held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, lasting eight days, through March 2 — where, as always, the wide receivers play the starring role, with Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch, the great nephew of the late Hall of Fame wideout Cliff Branch, is expected to run the fastest 40-yard dash time, if not necessarily thus becoming the first wide receiver to be drafted (and with both A.J. Brown and Jahan Dotson questionable and doubtful, respectively, to return to the Eagles next season, Branch will likely join his many fellow Georgia Bulldogs in Philadelphia if he produces as expected in Indy).
Next on the agenda is free agency — which the owners, stuck with a lemon by Judge Doty in 1993, quickly found a way to serve lemonade — with the serving of that lemonade commencing on March 12, preceded by a three-day period during which any team can negotiate future contracts with would-be free agents from other teams.
Last — and most certainly not least — exactly two months after the combine begins, the big payoff, in the form of the 2026 NFL Draft, begins with the three-day "selection meeting," as the league insists on officially calling it.
And speaking of that "selection meeting," wouldn't it be much fairer for the NFL to replace strength of schedule with strength of victory on the list of tie-breaking procedures to determine draft choices?
Although because of the four-way tie for the NFL's worst record at 3-14 among the Titans, Jets, Cardinals, and Raiders, the first three proposed new tiebreakers would not have come into play (the same thing happened in 2003 when the Cardinals, Giants, Chargers, and Raiders all came in at 4-12), it would come down to strength of victory anyway (see page 37 of the 2005 NFL Record & Fact Book), with the Titans getting the top pick by virtue of their .275 strength of victory over .373 for the Jets, .422 for the Cardinals, and .451 for the Raiders (actually, once the Titans and Jets are awarded the first two picks, respectively, the Cardinals would pick ahead of the Raiders on the grounds of a 1-4 record vs. common opponents, over 2-3 for the Raiders).
In most seasons, there would not be even a three-way tie, let alone a four-way tie, at the bottom of the table, as they say across the pond, as regards their version of football.
But it's awesome that it will take so short a time for everything to sort itself out. One cannot make the same claim for our former national pastime.
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