10 Ways the Movie ‘Draft Day’ Has Aged Poorly

There are football realities that have undergone a major shift since then. Here are the top 10 most dated real-world aspects of Draft Day....

1. No Analytics Department

Weaver, played by Kevin Costner, deals with his scouts and his cap expert/love interest. Not once does he ask the analytics department for their thoughts on quarterback Bo Callahan. The current Browns have over 10 full-time staffers in the analytics department. They would have been all over Callahan’s advanced statistics.

If they remade the movie today, the main conflict would have been between old-school Sonny and the math nerds. “I don’t want to hear about his EPA per play. Tell me about how he treated his grandmother when no one was looking!”

2. Sonny Weaver yells at Vontae Mack for using Twitter

Weaver had sage advice for Mack, his favorite linebacker prospect: “Don’t Twitter. Just stop. Delete your profile. Get off the web. Do not do this to yourself. ... Every GM in the league has read your tweet or whatever they call them.”

If Weaver couldn’t handle one Tweet, how would he deal with today’s athlete? A draft prospect would be offended if you didn’t subscribe to his podcast. Dallas’ Micah Parsons is officially the President of B/R Gridiron. Even Bill Belichick, who once said he wasn’t on “SnapFace,” is on X.

On a related note, one of the scouts “bookmarked” the web page that catalogued Callahan’s girlfriends. When’s the last time anyone bookmarked a page?

3. They didn’t know about rookie QB salaries

The NFL instituted the rookie cap in 2011. Since then, a young quarterback’s cost certainty is the best value in the league. Six of the last 14 Super Bowl starters have been on rookie deals. Passing on the quarterback would be team-building suicide for the Browns. Same with the next five teams that passed on the Wisconsin flame-thrower.

Jennifer Garner, who plays cap specialist Ali Parker, never mentions positional value. She has a lot on her mind – she just found out that she’s pregnant. That’s no excuse for over-drafting at two of the cheapest positions – interior linebacker and running back — later in the movie. Meanwhile, Weaver acknowledged that he overpaid veteran Brian Drew... who is eating up too much cap space for a QB coming off a major injury.

Speaking of ....

4. Teams don’t draft LBs and RBs anymore

In 2014, taking an interior linebacker in the first round was already considered dubious. Even though Mack looked like an edge in the clips we saw, he described himself differently: “If I was you, I’d take a lightning quick middle linebacker out of Ohio State who can murder the gaps in a 3-4.”

Teams started pushing inside linebackers down over the last decade. After the Bucs took Devin White at No. 5 in ’19, no team in the top 10 has sniffed the position with a top pick.

Then Weaver jumps back in and takes Florida State RB Ray Jennings (played by Arian Foster, who ironically was undrafted out of Tennessee) at No. 7. Made more sense at the time ... running backs went top 10 each year from 2015-18. But since then, only Bijan Robinson (No. 8 in ’23) has gone that high. We’ll soon see if Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is this year’s Ray Jennings.

5. No mention of QB mobility

Not once does anyone in the Browns building mention Callahan’s ability to move. At one point, a scout calls him “pure Roethlisberger,” citing his strength. That’s not exactly what teams want anymore. When the movie was made in 2013, the Pro Bowl featured Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers. The position has transformed over the last 11 years thanks to players like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts. Callahan’s inability to avoid the Ohio State pass rush would be a major issue for most of today’s teams.

6. Character risk doesn’t mean the same thing

The Browns were almost scared off drafting RB prospect Jennings because he beat up some guys in a fight. Not sure the filmmakers had a strong grasp on what qualifies as a character risk for the team that paid Deshaun Watson over $200 million.

7. Different ideas about fitness

Browns trainer Tony Bagel updates Weaver on the secret workout of rehabbing QB Brian Drew. The trainer brags that Drew squatted 400 pounds – nowhere near Jalen Hurts’ 700 pounds. And he says that he benched 250 pounds 25 times, which explains why Drew’s arm got stronger.

Draft Day was made before Tom Brady was so public about pliability. While throwing up a lot of weight on the bench is awesome, not sure that’s the standard thinking on how to increase arm strength. If they do a remake, Drew will be on the TB12 method and there will be a funny subplot on the vegan free safety trying to get Weaver to eat a plant-based burger.

8. The Cowboys are the model franchise

Weaver gets into an argument with new coach Vince Penn, played by Denis Leary, over their roles...

Weaver: Your job is to coach the team I give you. They do it different in Dallas?

Penn: Yeah, they do. They win. A lot.

Then Penn shows off his ring. This was a dated reference even in ‘14. This season marks the 30^th anniversary of the Cowboys’ last title. Penn is fairly young, so maybe he was a quality control coach during Dallas’ last title run.

9. Deion Sanders was in the media

One of the great ironies in the movie was that Deion Sanders worked for NFL Media covering a draft in which a former star player is trying to steer his son to Cleveland. If we could time travel back to ’14, no one would believe that Deion was going to coach his own son at Colorado. Deion might be pushing Shedeur to Cleveland. But did his teammates attend Shedeur’s birthday party... or was it a birthday concert?

10. Not enough draft hype

The movie tried to present the NFL Draft as one of the most important events on the sports calendar. They undersold it. It’s gotten bigger than anyone could have imagined. The filmmakers couldn’t have scripted the gigantic crowds in places like Detroit, Nashville and Philadelphia.

Weaver gets one call from Adam Schefter throughout the entire movie. Now he’d be hit by 12 different outlets and every move would be chronicled in dozens of mock drafts instantaneously. The insiders battling for information could be a movie itself.

Perhaps the movie played a role in increasing the draft’s popularity. It’s become almost too big to encapsulate in one story. Serious fans are so invested in the process, the details that come out of this movie are trivial.

Sonny Weaver had to ask his staff who had the No. 4 pick. He seemed only passingly familiar with many of the names on his own big board. With the level of detail the public has access to, even normal draft conversations surpass even the most advanced dialogue in Draft Day.