It’s been nearly two years since the official announcement that Pittsburgh would host the 2026 NFL Draft, set for April 23-25. The countdown clock is ticking down, the Draft stage (as of this writing) is almost built outside Acrisure Stadium, and throughout the city, preparations are underway. And yet, some people still have … questions.
What is a non-sports fan to make of all the hullabaloo? What about those who are woefully unacquainted with Pittsburgh Steelers football? What about the more feminine among us who only know NFL players through their talented wives and girlfriends? (I couldn’t have picked Aaron Rodgers out of a line-up until my husband explained I know him as Shailene Woodley’s ex-fiancée.) For the love of Pittsburgh, we want to get excited for the NFL Draft, too.
To get a quick primer, I talked with TribLive sports writer Chris Adamski, who’s covered the Steelers for 12 years.
What is the NFL Draft?
At the most basic level, the NFL Draft is an annual team selection meeting (and is still referred to this way in the industry, Adamski said).
As in all professional sports, teams get together to pick new players for the upcoming season. The draft process invites the worst teams to pick new players first. This is in service of a concept called parity, which aims to keep talent levels across teams roughly equivalent.
“The idea is that you want the bad teams to get the better players coming out of high school or college,” Adamski explained. “(The NFL) wants, from a business perspective, all their teams to be competitive.”
While this makes games more compelling, there’s also an emotional component for fans.
“The (league) wants every team every year to feel as if they have hope, or their fan bases to feel as if there’s a chance,” Adamski said.
Though the concept of parity is theoretical, in Adamski’s experience, NFL teams do go through noticeable cycles, which makes the annual draft important.
“Typically, if you draft right, the bad teams are getting the better players. (So) they become better,” he said. “While the good teams, their good players are getting older, and they’re drafting the lesser players. So it cycles back. Every team cycles through and is good at some point.”
What is the format of the NFL Draft?
There are seven rounds in the 2026 NFL Draft. Each round features 32 draft picks (one for each of the 32 NFL teams). However, under the terms of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, some teams receive extra “compensatory” picks, awarded under certain circumstances. For example, teams get extra draft picks if they lose free agent players who aren’t bound by a contract. The NFL has already announced 33 compensatory choices for this year’s draft, for a total of 257 draft picks over the course of three days.
The first round, which attracts the most attention, will take up the entirety of the Draft’s first day on April 23.
What will happen on the NFL Draft stage?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — who has ties to the region as a Washington & Jefferson College graduate — will headline, or more accurately, emcee, Adamski said. Goodell will likely make a big entrance (last year, he rode a bicycle onto the Draft stage), welcome everyone to Pittsburgh and then begin announcing draft picks from a podium.
During the first round, teams have eight minutes to lock in their picks (this was notably shortened from 10 minutes in previous years). This is also known as being “on the clock,” a reference I missed when the NFL Draft clock went up last year. A timer will count down. When a pick is made, a team representative will fill out a physical card with the player’s name, which is submitted to a “runner” to take up to the stage, making the pick official.
After the pick is announced, “(The player) will come up, and they’ll give him a hat for the new team that he’s on. They give everyone a hat,” Adamski said. “It’s kind of cheesy, but (Goodell) will give him a big hug, and say welcome to the NFL, and they’ll pose for a picture.”
Players emerge from a green room, usually accompanied by family, and wear suits. The suits have become their own draw in recent years, as they’re often eye-catching and custom-designed, spurring one designer to call the NFL Draft “the Oscars of sports.”
Newly drafted players generally don’t speak at the podium, but are interviewed for the live TV broadcast of the NFL Draft.
Adamski said that as the weekend progresses, you can also expect additional celebrity guests and local representatives announcing draft picks. The NFL has not officially announced any guests yet, but “pick your yinzer celebrity,” Adamski said. “Former Steeler players, the mayor, the governor. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeff Goldblum goes up and speaks with the third-round pick.”
Which NFL team will make the first draft pick?
Personally, I bristle at the idea of a “worst” team (they’re someone’s number-one team!), but going by win-loss record, the Las Vegas Raiders rank at the bottom.
The Raiders will make the first overall draft pick on April 23. The team is widely expected to pick a new quarterback.
“The quarterbacks are usually the top pick because they’re the most important position — not always, but they’re often the first pick,” Adamski said.
The Steelers will make the 21st overall pick in the first round. The NFL announced the full round-by-round draft order last month.
How many Draft prospects will be in Pittsburgh?
The NFL typically invites about two dozen players believed to be first-round picks to the Draft. This year, the list includes 16 players, with five hailing from Ohio State.
The year’s top prospect, Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, is reportedly skipping the Draft and spending time with family.
But the top prospects are indeed only prospective, and their fortunes can change quickly. Adamski recalled that, in 2005, future Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers fell from being the number-one overall draft pick to the 24th.
“It became a storyline of the Draft. They kept showing Aaron Rodgers sitting there, getting sad and pacing,” he said.
So, will there be grown men crying?
For some of us, this is a selling point.
“For (players) who have gotten to this level of football, they’ve most likely been playing since they were very young, and probably always dreamed of playing in the NFL,” Adamski says. In addition, most players’ college careers ended in December, and they’ve spent months interviewing with NFL teams and at the NFL Scouting Combine leading up to the Draft.
“If you’re a 21-year-old kid that maybe didn’t grow up with money, there’s a lot on the line. You’ll hear stories like that and definitely see that play out,” Adamski said. “Even if (the NFL) is a business, there’s emotion in hearing your name called.”
How accurate is the 2014 movie “Draft Day” starring Kevin Costner?
The high-stakes sports drama follows Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver Jr. (Costner) as he heads up a 12-hour decision-making process after drafting the number-one pick. Costner is shown in a war room frantically making calls while “on the clock” trading both current and future draft picks with other teams. (Notably, the movie was also considered to be the first feature film produced with official partnership from the NFL and includes actual Draft footage.)
Largely, Adamski said, this is true-to-life, though the movie provides a look behind the scenes of the Draft few are privy to.
“There will be trades,” he explained. “That’s part of the intrigue from a spectator perspective, is you’ll see the strategy from your team.”
Despite this year’s Draft being on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, “it’s going to be business as usual for the Steelers football scouting staff,” Adamski said, who will hole up in a war room at the team’s South Side headquarters.
“They make their big board, as they call it, and they will rank their players how they want them,” Adamski said. “But then, they have to adjust. The scouting staff works year-round for this moment, and on the day, you hope the good teams are prepared for any scenario when they’re on that clock.”
When did the NFL Draft become a public spectacle?
For most of its history, the NFL Draft was a closed-door meeting among teams, owners and coaches. The inaugural NFL Draft was held in 1936 at Philadelphia’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, with subsequent events also taking place at hotels. The Draft even came to Pittsburgh once before, in 1948, hosted at the now-demolished Fort Pitt Hotel Downtown. With no formal scouting, sports agents, or fan intrigue, it barely made the newspaper.
The year 1980 marked the first televised Draft, which, according to the NFL, changed the event. The NFL Draft has grown yearly since, eventually moving to New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, then to rotating host cities beginning in 2015.
What will the fan experience be like?
While the NFL Draft can feel like inside baseball (football) confined to the Draft theater and stage, its Pittsburgh footprint spans the North Shore, Point State Park and Downtown. The NFL has touted a complete “NFL Draft Experience” or free fan festival offering a range of activities outside of player selection.
As part of an NFL Draft Entertainment Series, Butler County native Bret Michaels and Pittsburgh favorite Wiz Khalifa will perform April 24, and country singer Kane Brown will headline April 25.
At Point State Park, fans can enjoy free live Draft coverage and daily entertainment. Announced activities include an immersive “Fan Cave” experience, a Terrible Towel art installation, yard games and a Steelers Nation Unite Bar with rotating themes from Steelers bars worldwide. Photo opportunities will abound with players, the Steelers’ six Vince Lombardi Trophies and all 59 Super Bowl rings. To attend Draft events, fans can register for free entry at nfl.com/draftaccess or download the NFL OnePass app.
Adamski said as Draft rounds progress, “I think you’ll probably see a lot more mingling, especially if you’re there on Saturday.”
“It’ll be a spectacle, for sure,” he said. “And I’m curious to see what degree myself.”