The Alliance of American Football, which commences play in February, generally is allocating players based on some type of regional connection. When it comes to quarterbacks, however, a very different process will be used.
On November 27, the AAF will conduct a “Protect or Pick” draft process, which sounds a little like “Yankee Swap.”
Here’s the explanation of the procedure, straight from the AAF’s press release: “The ‘Protect or Pick’ draft format begins with each team deciding if they want to protect one quarterback that has been allocated to them from their region. If a team elects to protect, they name the player they are protecting as their first selection in the draft. If they decide to pick, they wait until every other team has made their decision. Once each team makes their decision, the teams that elected to not protect a player make their selection, in the order of the draft, from the remaining pool of all available quarterbacks regardless of region. The Alliance quarterback draft will be comprised of four rounds.”
It’s unclear whether the pool of available quarterbacks will consist only of quarterbacks that already have been signed by the AAF, or whether teams will be able to secure dibs on players who may choose to play in the AAF, like former Broncos quarterback Chad Kelly.
The AAF’s eight teams will play a ten-game season, starting the weekend after Super Bowl LIII.