Rich Eisen, Rece Davis, and Mike Greenberg are all veterans of NFL Draft hosting duties, and the trio came together on Friday to discuss the 2026 version of the annual event.
Eisen wanted to know how Davis, covering the event on ABC, and Greenberg, hosting for ESPN, felt about this year’s faster pace, which had significantly shortened the first day of the draft but also left less breathing room in their broadcasts.
Davis, who was hosting coverage alongside most of his College GameDay cohorts, didn’t feel the quicker schedule affected him “because our philosophy on ABC is a little bit more player journey-driven.”
“When we would show the vignettes or do the family interviews, we had to get to them faster than we had in the past. It worked out fine for us,” Davis said on The Rich Eisen Show. “But if you’re discussing, hey, this trade happened, they’re moving draft capital, which is not necessarily our focus. Yes, I can understand where it might have been squeezed.”
Greenberg, meanwhile, was feeling the squeeze. While he appreciated the faster pace from the perspective of the audience at home, he said there were a few instances when the ESPN broadcast would have loved a little more time to dig into the storylines or the background behind a selection or trade. And he offered a potential solution to help them tell the stories they feel they need to tell.
“I do think there were a few moments in the draft that, maybe demand is too strong a word, but certainly suggest, that we should pause and reflect on it for a moment,” said Greenberg. “So when Jeremiyah Love goes 3, when you have running back going 3, that high, to a team like the Arizona Cardinals, it would be nice for a week if we could just say, ‘Alright, hold on, we’re calling our— we get like 2 timeouts.”
“Oh, as a broadcast?” implored Eisen. “We can stop the clock.”
“Okay, just put Tennessee on pause for just a minute. We need three minutes to talk about this,” added Greenberg. “And then the same thing at 13. Ty Simpson just went 13 to the Rams. This is reminiscent of Tommy Maddox getting drafted and John Elway being all upset about it and Dan Reeves ultimately leaving there… and the Rams making what was clearly the signature decision of Night 1, as we had 45 seconds to talk about the impact of it before I hear in my ear, ’30 seconds until commercial.’
“So I’d liked to have been able to call a timeout right there and say, ‘We need two minutes to discuss this.’ Most of it I think we could just roll along. There were a few moments that I thought it would have been nice to have a little extra time.”
Eisen, who hosts the NFL Network’s coverage, liked the idea but wondered aloud how it would work if different hosts disagreed on when timeouts could be taken. Greenberg posited the idea of a “golden buzzer” that each host gets, which overrides everyone else.
It’s an interesting idea. One imagines that NFL teams would scoff at it because it could, in theory, give someone an unfair advantage by allowing extra time to make their selection or confirm a trade that other teams won’t be allowed to do. However, if the NFL felt it might improve the broadcast, they could very well go for it to maximize those key moments everyone is talking about.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.