Draft dates locked: April 23

The 2026 National Football League Draft starts Thursday, April 23, in Pittsburgh and runs for three days through Saturday, April 25. (nfl.com) Round 1 begins at 8 p.m. Eastern on April 23, Rounds 2 and 3 start at 7 p.m. Eastern on April 24, and Rounds 4 through 7 begin at noon Eastern on April 25. The draft will air on American Broadcasting Company, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, National Football League Network and ESPN Deportes, with streaming on National Football League Plus and the ESPN app. (nfl.com) (visitpittsburgh.com) Pittsburgh’s draft campus is split between Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore and Point State Park downtown. The Roberto Clemente Bridge will serve as a pedestrian route linking the main theater and the fan festival across the rivers. (visitpittsburgh.com) Fans can attend for free, but the league and Visit Pittsburgh say entry is digital through the National Football League OnePass app or National Football League Draft Access. Visit Pittsburgh says on-site registration will also be available for people without smartphones. (visitpittsburgh.com 1) (visitpittsburgh.com 2) This year’s draft also changes the clock in the first round. National Football League Football Operations says teams now get eight minutes per first-round pick, down from 10, while the timing for Rounds 2 through 7 stays the same. (operations.nfl.com) The rest of the format is familiar: seven minutes per pick in Round 2, five minutes for regular or compensatory picks in Rounds 3 through 6, and four minutes in Round 7. The league says the draft order is based on the reverse order of finish from the previous season, with the Super Bowl champion drafting last in each round. (operations.nfl.com) The order is now set for all 257 picks, including 33 compensatory selections awarded to 15 teams. National Football League.com updated the full seven-round order on April 13 after earlier releasing the compensatory picks in March. (nfl.com) (operations.nfl.com) Pittsburgh was awarded the 2026 draft in May 2024, giving the city nearly two years to build the event around its stadium, downtown riverfront and bridges. The league said then that the draft would bring fans from across the country to western Pennsylvania; now the schedule is fixed and teams are down to final visits, medical checks and board meetings before April 23. (nfl.com) (operations.nfl.com)