Mickey Loomis explains the remote drafting process for the Saints

What does the remote drafting process look like for the Saints? Mickey Loomis elaborates.

Today's the day for the New Orleans Saints, as they're set to pick in tonight's NFL Draft. This year's draft is going to look a lot different this time around due to the threat of COVID-19. Still, football fans are just happy to get to this point to at least take their minds off of things.

Saints general manager Mickey Loomis talked to the media via a Zoom call on Wednesday to discuss the team's plans for the draft, and what was pretty interesting was how he described the entire process. They're using the technology available and communicating, and are ready to do this draft from their own homes.

"We have a communication system with the league and then we have a backup, which the backup is a conference call effectively and there's a system to setup and you basically send in your pick when you're on the clock," Loomis said on Wednesday. 

Loomis went into detail to elaborate on the intricacies with having to draft from a remote setup, and fans will be glad to know that the initial dry run the league had presented no obstacles for the Saints. 

"We have a screen showing who's on the clock, with the clock itself winding down and then when a pick is made that pick shows up on the screen and at the same time, the clock resets to the team that's now on the clock. It's in a lot of ways that's similar to what we do when we're calling our guy at the draft in New York and having them fill out a card and send in the card. Instead of that being a manual process with an individual, we're doing it over the internet, it's relatively simple."

The only real things Loomis is worried about is a glitch with the internet or a power outage, anything that would presumably interrupt the technology. Thankfully, there are backup systems in place to handle it. 

"At my setup, I've got a generator, so if there's a power outage, hopefully the generator comes on and I'm operating normally. If not (and) the internet's interrupted, we have cell phones. I can communicate by cell phone to Jeff (Ireland), to Sean (Payton), to any of our staff people as well as we've got an open conference call line on a separate phone with the league. We've got backup systems, we'll be able to communicate. Certainly, if we have a glitch, we have something that happens, we'll notify the league and if it delays our decision then they've got procedures in place to handle that."

Loomis also admittedly said he'll miss the interaction with his staff, a group that has been very close for years. However, they'll not be too far away.

"I don't know what I'm going to miss, but I do know that I love the draft. I love the process that we have, we're a team that has a lot of people in our draft room and there's a lot of conversation, a lot of give and take, a lot of opinions being given and I like that. I think there's an aspect of that that draws your staff closer I like."