NFL to shorten time between first-round picks to eight minutes

[FortressX]

NFL to shorten time between first-round picks to eight minutes

The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft will move a bit faster than in past years.

www.nbcsports.com

 

[PatsFan2]

NFL to shorten time between first-round picks to eight minutes

The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft will move a bit faster than in past years.

www.nbcsports.com

Should be shorter some Teams already know from the day before.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

I'm all for that, the 1st Rd is painfully slow.
Of course they had to offer an extension, which I bet gets used a lot.

 

[Triumph]

That's still lots of time.

Places the burden on teams wanting to trade to crap or get off the pot.

 

[VrabelJr]

Should be like 5 minutes. Every single team has an entire dedicated group spending months on this ****. If you don’t know who your guy is based on what’s happened in front of you after 10 seconds then you never will. 5 minutes gives time for trades but I could argue for 3 minutes.

 

[WinstonSmith]

I realize that I'm in the minority, but since the NFL decided to drag the entire draft out and make it an event, I've watched much less draft coverage, and instead just checkout the draft threads here sporadically throughout the draft.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Good move. This favors organizations that have their **** together,,abd the Patriots clearly have their **** together.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

This is actually a good change. 1st round is too damned long. You don’t need 10 min.

 

[Zuma]

I agree the shorter time is better and most teams know who they want. It's funny though...they will have 8 minutes to make a pick that will potentially change their organization for decades and spend half a billion dollars...they have 8 minutes to decide. No pressure.

 

[BobDigital]

Other ideas to speed things up/make things better

1 On draft day make it so teams can not call players until 15 minutes after the pick. They are simply notified they are picked live. The NFL hates having a guy drafted while he is on the phone. It slows the whole thing down and they want to get him on stage and do a quick interview in round 1. So just don't allow team contact until that is done. 15 minutes should be plenty. This is only a rd 1 rule btw.

2 Don't introduce the guest announcing the pick. Just flash it on TV and the big screen on the stage. That or have the commentators mention it in the time between picks "By the way... the announcer for X team in a few minutes will be Person/Former Player Y". Having good go on stage to announce the person then the person announce the pick just is painful when done 32 times. i want 1 announcement on stage per pick. Not 2.

3 Not troops or make a wish or random fans announcements please. When it is troops we need to have an honor moment for them. I am for that.. but this is a time sensitive thing. Save that for before football games, on coin tosses, ect... drafts need to be faster. Same for the fans or kids wanting to do something NFL related. Any guest announcer should be an adult former player or someone related to the team. Maybe an adult fan who is media personality. Not some rando though. Someone who knows how to be on stage please. Keep it simple.

4 Change your commercial break structure for drafts. Have announcers mention products live. This pick is brought to you by so and so. Or do some quick 60-90 second break after single picks sometimes. These constant 3 minute commercial breaks in a live draft just tend to throw things off. They need to do something else to avoid big blocks of time where delays happen. The nature of the draft isn't designed to fit that structure. So change how you package it.

Thats all i got.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Should be shorter some Teams already know from the day before.

You still need time to trade.

 

[patfanken]

For over 20 year's draft day was something I followed HERE with the draft nerds on and off during the first round and would do the same on the other 2 days. However, the last 2 years being at the top of the draft, I did find it entertaining until we made our pick and immediately turned it off to discuss our pick.

Making it move faster is ALWAYS a good idea.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Good. Teams purposely take their sweet as time when they already know who they are taking. NFL also isn't innocent as well as they take forever to announce the pick once the team makes a selection.

 

[Wax Frog]

I will never tire of this! Never!



@Steve102 @Pape

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Good. Ill never forget staying up till midnight to find out we’re taking cole ****ing strange!!

 

[Schmo]

It's definitely better for the fans, but seeking a potential trade with 31 other teams in 8 minutes with so much on the line is kinda crazy.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I agree the shorter time is better and most teams know who they want. It's funny though...they will have 8 minutes to make a pick that will potentially change their organization for decades and spend half a billion dollars...they have 8 minutes to decide. No pressure.

They're not making the decision de novo. At worst, unless things have gone completely pear-shaped, they're looking at the top players left at whatever positions they deem most important (e.g., Mayo et al. were, at worst, looking at something like Maye vs. Alt vs. Nabers).

 

[stinkypete]

I realize that I'm in the minority, but since the NFL decided to drag the entire draft out and make it an event, I've watched much less draft coverage, and instead just checkout the draft threads here sporadically throughout the draft.

The last draft I watched was 2009. I hate the dragged out model.

 

[pazrul72]

Less time between picks is great to me. With the massive team of scouts and people prepping for the draft there is no way they are worse then the people here who can say around pick 20 we will have a choice of these 3 players we like/want/need. They know what other teams have for resources and are likely to trade. Honestly if you've done your homework you should have a rough idea of what a trade would look like before the draft. Vikings had two first round picks and a huge hole at QB it's not exactly rocket science for them (pre draft night) to have agreed to on paper both firsts and a 2nd next year to move up. Then on draft night it's as simple as when Maye is still there phone call lasting as long as "we good to trade?" "Yes" that **** doesn't take 8 mins if done properly. It's only the crap franchises that don't put in enough work that pull **** out of their ass draft night.

 

[BobDigital]

It's definitely better for the fans, but seeking a potential trade with 31 other teams in 8 minutes with so much on the line is kinda crazy.

I don't think so... This is what these people do your a living. They gave charts and tradd values memorized. The amount of prep is insane