Those players were scouted by scouts. But that's only a very small part of the evaluation process. After the season the whole staff scouts and evaluates. Real opinions and evaluations on players are certainly not done during the college season.Covid was first reported in America in January 2020. The players taken in the 2020 draft all were scouted during the 2019 college season which was prior to the Covid outbreak.
The fact is teams constantly make questionable or bad picks in the first round of the draft, whether there is an epidemic or not.
That is why only 30% of first round draft picks end up signing a second contract with the team that originally drafted them.