NFL Draft 2026: Winners & losers with Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, Jets & Giants

You have to give it to the NFL for the second biggest event on the league calendar to take three days to read names off the cards.

805,000 fans visited the three-day event in Pittsburgh, and Thursday’s single-day attendance record for the first round was 320,000.

Only the Super Bowl is bigger, and even then it only seriously involves two teams, but all 32 teams enter the draft for one simple reason: hope.

The worst teams are getting the best picks from college superstars, giving them hope of a magical comeback, and the NFL has managed to market all of this as a must-see experience.

Detroit hosted 775,000 fans in 2024, Green Bay had 600,000 last year, with Pittsburgh topping both.

Washington D.C. will be hoping for even more next year, and commissioner Roger Goodell announced that cities are lining up to win hosting duties in the coming years — representatives from 10 of them went scouting in Pittsburgh this weekend.

The NFL Draft looks set to get even bigger.