NFL's Rule Change For 2026 Draft Receives Backlash After 'Disastrous' First Round

If you thought Thursday's telecast of the 2026 NFL Draft was a bit hectic, just know you're not alone.

Prior to the 2026 draft, NFL teams had 10 minutes each to make their first-round selections. The league decided to trim that time down to eight minutes. This was designed to shorten the length of the first round, which was finishing around 11:45 p.m. ET in recent years.

"Only the first round is held on Thursday. It starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time, and each team has eight minutes to make its pick," the league stated. "The second and third rounds are on Friday; rounds 4-7 are on Saturday. Teams get seven minutes to make picks in the second round, five minutes for regular or compensatory picks in rounds 3-6 and four minutes in round 7. If a team lets its time expire without making a choice, it can make a selection later - but it runs the risk of letting the next team on the clock take the player it was considering."

NFL general managers made their feelings about this rule change known before the first round started.

"I'd love to have 10 minutes, but it's the same for everybody else," Steelers general manager Omar Khan said, via Pro Football Talk. "Eight minutes is what it is, but those two minutes, it feels like an eternity sometimes."

Did this move backfire on the NFL?

While the draft certainly flew at times Thursday night, ESPN's telecast was a bit delayed because its crew tried to fairly analyze each pick.

"ESPN is so far behind on picks. They're going to have to figure this 8 min thing out because they can't be 10+ min behind real time," former NFL offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz said. "The whole tipping picks thing is irrelevant when you feel like you can't be on social media because the TV is that delayed."

"8 minute pick clock was a disaster," Josh Norris of Underdog said. "There's no room for analysis No room to let anything breathe."

"The NFL HAS to speed up its TV process," Marcus Mosher of Locked On Cowboys said. "You can't already be this many picks behind. This is awful."

It's unclear if the NFL will go back to having a 10-minute clock for each first-round selection.

All we can say right now is that some NFL fans weren't thrilled with the product on TV.

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This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 6:55 AM.