Day 3 of the NFL Draft is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to really pace yourself to get through the final four rounds of the draft, with increasingly obscure players, many from small schools, hearing their names called. For fans, it takes serious dedication to watch the final day of the draft, but for the analysts on ESPN and NFL Network, this is their time to shine and show why they get paid the big bucks.
Anyone can analyze Myles Garrett or Deshaun Watson or most any of the players taken in the first round. However, breaking down a Division II football player taken in the later rounds takes an expert who has done the work and can flip through his notes to find his thoughts on a guy like Grover Stewart. A graduate of Albany State, Stewart was the 144th pick in the draft by the Colts.
Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a guy like Stewart is Mike Mayock’s job on the NFL Network, but the job of television producers is to make the draft interesting to fans watching at home, so they do things like have an orangutan announce the Colts picks from the Indianapolis Zoo. This came after a Vikings pick got teased by The Mountain from Game of Thrones and many other gimmicky sorts of things. By the time they went back to the zoo one too many times, Mayock had seen enough.
This is just incredible stuff. Look, I get it, this is Grover Stewart’s moment and I’m glad Mayock (who’s one of the best in the business) wants to give the kid some shine rather than laughing about the orangutan’s hip bend. That said, Stewart is happiest that his name got called and I’m sure he doesn’t care that it got announced with the assistance of an orangutan trained to push a touch screen. I’ve seen a lot of people get mad on live television before, but I’ve never seen anyone threaten to walk off set because of an orangutan, so that’s certainly new.
