NFL Draft Tonight

The first round of the 2026 National Football League draft starts Thursday night in Pittsburgh, with the clock opening at 8 p.m. Eastern. (nfl.com) The draft runs April 23-25 at Point State Park and Acrisure Stadium, and the league says Pittsburgh is hosting the event for the first time since 1948. The 2026 draft will include 257 picks across seven rounds. (operations.nfl.com) Round 1 is set for Thursday, with Rounds 2 and 3 on Friday, April 24, and Rounds 4 through 7 on Saturday, April 25. The league says live coverage of the opening round will air on NFL Network, NFL+, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. (nfl.com) What happens early could reshape the whole board. NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah wrote in his final mock draft that he expects four first-round trades, with uncertainty building after the No. 1 pick. (nfl.com) Jeremiah’s projection has the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints moving up, a sign that teams picking outside the top 10 may not wait for prospects to fall. His mock also pegs the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 9, an unusually high slot for a team that has spent recent drafts picking much later. (nfl.com) The official first-round order starts with the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 1 and runs through 32 picks Thursday night. The full seven-round order was updated by NFL.com on April 18. (nfl.com) For fans in Pittsburgh, the draft is also a city-sized event. The NFL says entry is free through its OnePass system, and the main draft theater sits outside Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore. (nfl.com) The league has also turned the weekend into a public festival, with the Roberto Clemente Bridge closed to vehicle traffic as a pedestrian corridor and nightly light projections at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. (media.nfl.com) By Thursday night, the first question is simple: whether the board holds long enough for teams to pick in order, or breaks apart once the trade calls start. (nfl.com)