LA Chargers: Winners and Losers from the 2020 NFL Draft
By Steven Haglund
The LA Chargers wrapped up a very eventful offseason this weekend. But how did the rest of the league do?
The first-ever virtual draft has come and gone. The 2020 NFL draft will be remembered forever due to the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the other teams around the league had great drafts, some had horrible ones, but it seems the LA Chargers came away with a very solid draft. In this article, I will take a look at some of those winners and losers around the league.
LA Chargers fans were able to sit back and watch as their favorite team went through the process and came away with some really good players. Justin Herbert is the new face of the franchise, Kenneth Murray is the piece that the defense has been missing for a long time, and K.J. Hill was the steal of the draft.
Add in Joshua Kelley, Joe Reed and Alohi Gilman and the LA Chargers got some very intriguing pieces going forward.
Let’s get to the winners and losers:
Winner: The National Football League
Though the NFL Draft is generally a big event, it actually was bigger than ever even though it was done virtually. The first round on Thursday night had the best ratings in draft history, reaching over 15 million viewers. That number surpassed the previous high of 2014. Most fans seem to continually hate commissioner Roger Goodell but he handled this weekend very well.
The league raised a lot of money for COVID19 support and the decision by them and Bud Light to send in videos of each team’s fans “booing” him was a nice touch. I thought the coverage was great all weekend, especially with the addition of Daniel Jeremiah.
The constant emphasis of tragic backstories by ESPN was a little weird, but other than that the league and Goodell really did a tremendous job adapting to the times.
One thing is clear under Goodell’s NFL: it continues to reach new heights each year and ultimately that is a good thing for NFL fans.