Other teams run their war room like a circus. They've watched Draft Day too many times.
An article from 2014 on how the Packers set up their draft room.
At team headquarters across the NFL, the draft means waiting, working through the chaos, waiting some more and trusting The Board
www.si.com
Some quotes:
The general manager sits at either the head of a conference table or directly in front of the board, flanked by his most trusted personnel assistant and the head coach. Further down are personnel directors working the phones, each assigned a team based on relationships. Close at hand are 1) the cap/contract person (my former role), ready to advise with numbers on all players, 2) a research/statistician evaluating proposed trades through various proprietary charts and analytics, and 3) team doctors and trainers ready with physical grades. There’s an open line to a staff member in New York who fills out and hands in the card for each selection. Finally, owners and their friends—or, in the case of the Packers, members of the Executive Committee—circle in occasionally, although most exit stage right soon after the top pick is made.
Definitely a pretty calm place, especially considering Green Bay doesn't have an owner, just an Executive Committee.
In our case we get GM and head coach all in one person, and presumably a similar set of others in the room.
And of course we get a re-telling of the Aaron Rodgers pick, see below.
Note Ted refers to Ted Thompson, GB's general manager at the time.
Seems he had final say, he didn't have to yield to the head coach or the head of pro personnel, nor even take that much input from them.
This is kind of how I think it goes for BB in our draft room.
Probably a lot different in places such as WAS or CIN.
A true trust The Board moment came in the drafting of Aaron Rodgers.
In 2005, we had approximately 20 players rated above the first-round line. When we arrived at our pick, at No. 24, the only name left above that line was Rodgers, who played the same position as one of the most durable players in NFL history: Brett Favre. (I always had a hard time signing a backup quarterback, as they wanted to have at least the possibility of playing.)
As we stared at Rodgers’ name, there were murmurs in the room from those concerned with the short-term, realizing we may well use our first-round pick on a player who would probably not get in a game that year (or perhaps the next, or even the year after that ... or possibly never in a Packers uniform).
...
I could not really tell him anything, as Ted wanted to see if an offer for extra picks would come while we were on the clock. The room and the phone lines were eerily silent—with all eyes on Ted and on me holding the phone—as everyone waited for the decision. Finally, after 10 minutes that seemed like 10 hours, Ted gave the go-ahead: We were taking Aaron.
Interesting part to me is the fact that those who objected to the Rodgers pick only "murmured" their objections, and the room was mostly silent as the clock ticked down till they had to make the pick. It's a lot different than how I'd picture most draft rooms being in that situation. I'd think there'd be a lot of open lobbying for doing something other than following the board verbatim since they really did not need a QB at the time, instead it was murmurs followed by silence.
