Ok so the title is probably hyperbole - these are probably dumb thoughts of a silly type person...

Anyhow, from the first time I hit a draft, I had assumed that drafts would operate more differently than they do so I thought I'd share the tweak to them and maybe some other ideas that have probably already been brought up before. When it comes to draft time, I'd love to be able to draft ahead of my allotted deadline. Hold on to that thought for a minute and let me splain...let's use this as an example:

Pick 1 - George's Team - 7:00 AM
Pick 2 - CPU guy - 7:20 AM
Pick 3 - Steve's Team - 7:40 AM
Pick 4 - More different CPU team - 8:00 AM
Pick 5 - Chico's Team - 8:20 AM

As things work now, George can shuffle his draft board all he wants up until 7:00 AM which is when his top dude will be selected. Then we wait another 20 minutes for the CPU guy to do the same and so on....

I kinda thought was that if you are on the clock - say the draft phase just started and George is on the clock, that he could click a player and click a button that says "Draft" or "Draft Now" or something. Which at that point his turn is up and we are on to the CPU guy. Since it is a CPU guy and he's just going to take whatever player and has no interest in trades and things, the CPU should just go ahead and select right away without waiting.

I may have lost some of you due to concerns that this would require people to be logged in all day as the draft would be more fluid and you would no longer know when exactly you will be up to select. I can assure you that is not my intent - in my vision, I would keep all of the deadlines the same, just that you CAN select earlier if the teams ahead of you have already picked. So the deadlines stay the same and if you are not online it just acts the same way that it does now.

Just to underscore, using my above example times, if George already knows who he is taking at #1, he can select a player as soon as the draft phase starts but he has up until 7AM to actually make the pick if he so desires. As I said, the CPU guy is pointless to sit around waiting for, so all CPU picks happen immediately after the human ahead of them has selected. Therefore Steve would have at worst case from about 7AM until 7:40 AM to make his pick. Followed by another quick CPU pick and then Chico has until 8:20 to do his thing.

In the end, not all humans would pick early so its unlikely to be a huge difference and I'd say that makes this a low priority if it was considered a good idea at all. But yeah, I think if folks are around for the start of the draft that you could get some picks done early and if a draft phase happened to go over the weekend that picks could occur even on Sunday. Anyhow, that is it - just was thinking we could pick as soon as we are on the clock.

Given I just went through a couple of the league start up drafts (47 & 48) and some of the comments were that folks ended up with too many players at certain positions. I was thinking it might be nice to be able to either have a limit to the number of players who are picked at a position (user configurable) or have the option to assign a position to a pick slot. Like in round 1 pick a D-lineman, pick 2 should be a RB, third round is a WR, fourth round is best available player, etc.

Pie in the sky idea would be to have a draft board assignment per position group. For instance toward the end of the draft, I tend to take shots at players who are not assigned to their current position (draft a FB to play TE or similar). It would be cool to say have a draft board for TE, another one for D-line, and another for LB, etc. Then fill those up with dudes who you want to play at those positions. It would be great if you could say out of this list of TE prospects, I only want to draft 1 of them. Once a player is selected from that list, that draft board is inactive/greyed out.

Not sure how much of that resonates at all and I'm sure multiple draft boards would be mucho more complexicated and may not be worth the time. Alas those were my thinks and I figure if there is something salvageable from them, then it is all good. If not, then that's ok. I think the draft works fine as it is, just kind of had all of these thoughts at one time or another.

Basically a draft now button instead of waiting around? +1

I'm a plus one on this also.

I don't think it would have too much of an impact, and none negative that I can think of.

The benefit would be in leagues with active owners. You could end up with more time before the "next" pick, making it more likely that a trade could be worked out if someone wanted to move up if a player they want is available.

I don't see any downside to this.

+1

I don't see the benefit of this. Why would I ever want to select "draft now" and give someone else extra time? How does that benefit me?

Also, it doesn't seem fair that some people would get more time than others. For example, if Steve hits "draft now" at 6:50 than Steve has 50 minutes to make his pick. However if Steve takes his whole time then Chico only gets 40 minutes. How is that fair to Chico?

Chico gets to see who comes off the board sooner, and therefore has more time to adjust accordingly.

Nobody likes Chico anyway

I don't support this, especially because the system works just fine as it is. Each pick is ASSIGNED a Draft Time who the **** needs an hour or even 20 minutes to pick 1 player? If you can't make the draft, do as I do, set up your draft to take the "best Position Player available".

I just finished my allocation Draft in MFN-47, right after the 1st round, I had to call the Squad to come and take my wife (of 44 years) to the hospital. She needed to have her Gall Bladder and Stones removed. She was in the hospital for almost the entire week. Obviously, I missed most of the draft due to staying with her as much as possible. While she would need to rest, I would slip away, go home and check on and update my picks and make sure I was getting a quality team, on both sides of the ball.

When I draft, I pick 1 Offense / and 1 Defense / 1 Offense / 1 Defense and so on. Especially with the GREAT PLAYERS that were in the draft, I was able to keep some kind of balance among all positions.

No, it wasn't perfect, but it is at least something I can work with!

That is kind of the point of my suggestion. Why sit around waiting to pick when you can select and get the draft moving. I mean there is an entire day wasted just to get to the draft phase (after free agency) where if you could "draft now" you could be making picks and getting the draft started early. Same goes for over weekends - you could be making picks on Sunday/off day. Granted it is unlikely that the draft would complete ahead of time - but who really cares about the draft after round 4?

As for some perceived advantage to having extra time to make a selection - I don't really understand that point. Yeah you could use the time to make a trade but really do you get a better player to draft with additional time on the clock?

The only downside I can think of is the time it would take to develop and that it would detract from more pressing issues. Which is the same with any changes to the game. I don't think this is a priority, I just think the draft is slow and I'd like to get the first few rounds done more quickly if possible.

But you aren't making the draft go any faster. It is still going to take the same amount of time to finish the draft. Unless you are proposing that our predetermined draft times change if users "draft now", which I think is a bad idea.