Scouting each network’s plans for NFL Draft coverage

A year ago, the first round of the NFL Draft averaged a little more than 10 million viewers on ESPN, ABC, and NFL Network.

That may seem like a large number. For context, it’s approximately 2 million fewer viewers than the 2022 World Series and NBA Finals averaged and more than twice that of last season’s Stanley Cup Final.

But by NFL Draft standards, it was a letdown. It turned out to be the least-watched first round since 2017. If you’re wondering why, maybe the answer can be found in this question: Quick, who was the No. 1 pick in 2022?

If you immediately said Travon Walker, you are either a University of Georgia fan, a Jacksonville Jaguars loyalist, or have long held an Official NFL Draftnik card. Walker might be a nice player (he had 3.5 sacks as a rookie), but defensive ends don’t move the viewership needle.

This year is different. Four quarterbacks — probable No. 1 pick Bryce Young of Alabama, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis, and Florida’s Anthony Richardson — are projected to go in the first half of the first round.

Quarterbacks are magnets for viewership. Better, there’s very little certainty about where any of them will end up. High-profile talent and suspense is a combination that should lead to superb ratings this year.

Round 1 coverage for ESPN, ABC, and NFL Network began Thursday night. Rounds 2-3 commence Friday at 7 p.m., and Rounds 4-7 on Saturday start at noon.

In the spirit of the draft, here’s a de facto scouting report of each network’s coverage plans . . .

ESPN

Key players: Mike Greenberg (host), Mel Kiper Jr., Louis Riddick, Booger McFarland (analysts), Suzy Kolber (player interviewer), Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen (reporters). For Rounds 4-7 on Saturday, Rece Davis will host, with Kiper, Riddick, Todd McShay, and Matt Miller as analysts.

Scouting report: Greenberg is beyond ubiquitous (he also hosts ESPN’s NBA studio programming and the weekday morning hot-take fiesta “Get Up!”), but there’s a reason for that. He’s an energetic and competent navigator of various voices and loads of information. (I still say Trey Wingo was the best draft host ESPN has had.) Riddick is the most trusted analyst at this address, and only partially because he drove the Patrick Mahomes bandwagon during the 2017 draft, which didn’t have as many passengers as you might think. Kiper is working his 40th draft for ESPN, having debuted in 1984.

ABC

Key players: Davis (host), Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, McShay (analysts), Laura Rutledge (player interviews), Pete Thamel (insider). Sam Ponder (host) and Robert Griffin III (analyst) will be on a second set. David Pollack (analyst) will be part of Friday’s coverage of Rounds 2-3.

Scouting report: ESPN and ABC got wise after receiving criticism during the 2020 draft for going overboard with personal details. Among their toomuch-information transgressions that year: noting on a graphic that Bengals second-round pick Tee Higgins’s mom, Camilla, “fought drug addiction for 16 years.” Since then, the networks have been more sensitive about what human-interest information they share. They also have taken different approaches with their sister broadcasts. ESPN focuses on the football aspects, while ABC takes the human-interest approach. This broadcast obviously also has more of a college football bent, with trusted “College GameDay” stalwarts Davis, Herbstreit, Howard, and scoop-master Thamel already having first-hand familiarity with dozens if not hundreds of prospects.

NFL Network

Key players: Rich Eisen (host), Daniel Jeremiah, Charles Davis, Joel Klatt (analysts), Melissa Stark (player interviews). Ian Rapoport (insider) and Kurt Warner (analyst) will be situated on a separate theater set. Peter Schrager (analyst) will join Rapoport on the theater set for Friday’s coverage and join the main set on Saturday.

Scouting report: This will be Eisen’s 17th year hosting the draft for the network. He has a ways to go to catch Chris Berman, who anchored ESPN’s coverage from 1985 to 2016, as the longest-tenured draft host, but he is synonymous with the NFL Network’s coverage and makes a chaotic job look easy. In a recent morningconsult.com poll, Warner was voted as viewers’ favorite draft analyst on any network and Klatt as the least favorite, which frankly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on either count. NFL Network and ESPN have split up the player interviews. Kolber will take the oddnumbered picks for ESPN, while Stark interviews the even-numbered selections on the league’s network. Neither the NFL Network nor ESPN has a reporter specifically assigned to the Patriots.