As the 2023 NFL season kicks off, fans can get an inside look at the NFL Draft by watching the new documentary NFL Draft: The Pick is In, which is currently streaming on The Roku Channel. One of the NFL personalities featured in the film, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, is one of the top insiders in the league. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Rapoport who explained why every NFL fan should watch NFL Draft: The Pick is In.
“It’s so awesome,” Rapoport exclusively told PopCulture. “It really is fantastic, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in it, although I am in it and my part is great. It’s basically everything behind the scenes that you sort of would hope to know about the draft, right? Every year there’s a draft surprise. …I really, really love the draft. I love all parts of it. I love the preparation. I love getting all this information and then being like, all right, anything could happen and let’s go. And a lot of times anything does happen and I like that part of it. And the fact that I kind of got to share why I like it and how I do what I do I think was really fun.”
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NFL Draft: The Pick Is In goes inside the war room of the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars. All four teams made an impact during the NFL Draft, but another team, the Houston Texans, became the story of the draft as they traded for the No. 3 overall pick to select linebacker Will Anderson. What made it a story is the Texans also selected quarterback C.J. Stroud at No. 2 overall.
“There was another scenario where we talked with Daniel Jeremiah — who ended up doing this in his mock draft before the draft— about could the Texans trade up to three?” Rapoport explained. “And it seemed kind of crazy but makes a lot of sense. They accumulated all this draft capital, use it on really good players, and I thought that was such a cool thing. I thought it was perfect, and you could see my reaction, which they definitely bleeped out. It was shocking. And that’s one of the great things. And their trade talks with the Cardinals had been kept quiet, so only those in the room knew. And to see it play out in real time was really just awesome.”
Rapoport is all over NFL Draft: The Pick is In as he was breaking news during the three days in April. But as busy as the 43-year-old was, he revealed the draft is not actually the busiest set of days for him when it comes to NFL News. “I write down all the names and I call everyone I know, and I gather information and I make basically a big Word document with all my notes, and I go through and I plan everything,” Rapoport said about his draft plans. “And at some point, there’s only so many phone calls you can make.
“So you get to the Monday or Tuesday of Draft week, and I always still call people and check in what’s going on. At some point, there’s no new information, so you just say, well, these guys need to pick. And then they pick and that’s really intense, but that’s only a three-hour, four-hour window. Free agency is basically all hands on deck, no sleep, 5:00 a.m. The week before all the way through that Friday, I’m not a human, it’s just work. And it’s really fun and it’s crazy, but it’s also misery because it’s so wild. So that’s probably the craziest stretch of my year I would say.”
