The first round of the 2026 NFL draft moved fast.
This year, the NFL changed the rules so that teams got only eight minutes to put in their first-round picks, and as a result the first round finished in under three hours.
According to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, the official time of this year’s first round was 2 hours, 53 minutes.
That’s 36 minutes shorter than last year’s first round, which lasted 3 hours, 29 minutes. Last year, teams were allowed to take 10 minutes between picks.
The draft used to be a marathon, with teams getting 15 minutes between first-round picks. In 2007, the first draft Commissioner Roger Goodell presided over, the first round lasted 6 hours, 8 minutes.