Steelers Now
The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh is going to fly by, and it won’t just feel that way for the hundreds of thousands crammed into Pittsburgh’s North Shore to watch the proceedings.
The first round of the draft, which will take place on Thursday, April 23, will be significantly shorter than it will be in recent years. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Wednesday that the first round will go from 10 minute in between picks to just eight minutes.
Goodell had hinted at the change during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show earlier this year.
The last few drafts had been wrapping up at about 11:45 p.m. Eastern Time. With an 8 p.m. start time, and some lag time before the first team is on the clock, if every team took their full 10 minutes, the draft could have theoretically stretched until well after 1 a.m.
With the picks now at eight minutes apiece, the longest the draft can possibly be from the time first pick goes on the clock is 4 hours, 16 minutes. Many teams do not take anywhere near the full allotted time.
Goodell has also toyed with the idea of giving each team a two-minute timeout to use once per draft, but that was not officially part of his announcement on Wednesday.
The Steelers will be hosting the draft for the first time in the modern era, with the stage to be set up alongside Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore. Last year, approximately 600,000 people attended the three-day draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, massively exceeding an expected crowd of 250,000, Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: NFL Announces Significant Change for 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh
