This year the NFL Draft will be a virtual event due to the restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. They’ll be no throngs of adoring fans, no pomp circumstance, hype or hullabaloo.

Most importantly, they’ll be no hug and photo op with the commissioner on the big stage. Instead, players will be called, texted, DM’d or what have you at their homes. It will be a huge letdown for many of these young men who’ve waited their whole lives to hear their name called at the draft.

Staying home for the draft would be just fine for New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who’s moment came two years ago in Dallas as the second overall selection in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Barkley told Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks that if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn’t be in attendance.

“If I could do it again, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the draft,” the former Penn State star said. “Like, that memory of walking on the stage and getting a jersey is something that you never forget and something like that’s always gonna stick with me. But, like, a lot of people don’t know, like, the behind the scenes. Like, I had to do, like, two or three hours of, like, media right after I got drafted. Like, I missed my own draft party. Jim Brown came to my draft party, and like, I called him when he was leaving my draft party, so, like, I didn’t really get to spend as much time as I would’ve liked to with my loved ones.”

Barkley also explained the realities of this year’s draft season with players not being able to meet and work out in person for teams due to the travel restrictions.

“(I) feel bad more for not the ones who know and they’re going to get drafted already,’ he said. “Kind of like, without having pro days and stuff like that. I do have a lot of close, personal friends who are kind of going through this. They gotta film their pro days. They gotta film 40s. Some people who had a Combine and didn’t do as well as they wanted to at the Combine, a lot of people make up for that at the pro day and they don’t. They’re not going to be able to get that. I feel bad more for those guys than the guys who aren’t going to be able to actually go to the draft.”

The NFL Draft will be held as a television/online event from April 23-25. It was scheduled to be a huge blowout event in Las Vegas but like every other major gathering or event this year, it was canceled.