In a new twist to the draft this year, the league is going to allow teams to announce their picks on Day Three of the 2015 NFL Draft (Rounds Four, Five, Six, and Seven) from different areas in their home market. And, according to Peter King's MMQB column today, the Minnesota Vikings will be announcing their picks from a not-so-surprising location.
According to King, the team will be announcing their Day Three picks from the site of their new stadium, which is slated to open next year. While there are a lot of places around the Twin Cities that the team could have chosen, the stadium makes the most sense, I think. Perhaps if the league goes the same route next season, they'll pick a different location, but that's where they'll be for this season's draft.
Among some of the other places that teams will be using, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be announcing their sixth and seventh-round picks from London, keeping up their partnership with the city, while the Arizona Cardinals will be at a Rib and Music Festival in their stadium and the Atlanta Falcons will be at the new College Football Hall of Fame. Two teams have also jumped on the military bandwagon for the day, as the Oakland Raiders will be announcing their picks from Travis Air Force Base and the Seattle Seahawks will be announcing their selections from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (As someone that spent three-plus years at McChord AFB, before they became a joint base with Fort Lewis, I think this is a great idea.)
The league has also announced that the times for getting picks in will be slightly different this year. First-round picks will still be ten minutes, second-round picks get seven minutes, and picks in Rounds Three through Six get five minutes. The time for seventh-round picks, however, has been reduced to four minutes, and all compensatory picks will be four minutes, regardless of round.