Fox Sports Putting Trey Wingo on NFL Draft Coverage Is Pretty Clever

Trey Wingo will pilot Fox Sports' NFL Draft coverage, according to a report from the New York Post's Andrew Marchand. That coverage will take the form of a watch party across the network's digital and social properties. Obviously, going head-to-head with ESPN/ABC is a tough matchup, what with the actual draft being dipped in all the assorted Disney sauces. But calling in Wingo from the bullpen is an extremely savvy move by Fox.

It's a way to get someone with recent and high-profile experience anchoring the event onto airwaves. It's also a clever bit of corporate trolling. Wingo's exit from ESPN was seen by many as an entirely avoidable misstep. He was very good on all things NFL and valiantly tried to replicate the success of Mike & Mike with an early-morning radio show, which is still proving to be quite a difficult mountain to climb.

ESPN has tapped Mike Greenberg to fill Wingo's vacant hosting shoes and if anyone has proved themselves capable of facilitating in big moments, it's the Get Up host. Yet he doesn't have the time equity of Wingo when it comes to football's marquee index card event. So in this case, Wingo remains the more authoritative voice even if the platform will be exponentially smaller.

It's a nice little microcosm for what's proven to be Fox's overarching strategy since the launch of FS1, even if they wouldn't agree. They are not about having a farm team and developing Major League talent. They are about picking away at establishment ESPN through free agency and building on the name recognition built over there.

Kudos to whomever hatched and executed this idea.