After the ’07 first round took a record six hours and eight minutes to complete, the league shortened the time between picks from 15 minutes to 10. Ronald Martinez / Getty Images
The NFL is shortening the time between first-round draft picks by two minutes beginning in 2026, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday.
Teams will now have eight minutes to make their first-round selections, as opposed to the previous 10-minute window. The change will shorten the length of the first round, which had previously taken nearly four hours to complete, and put teams on a tighter clock to negotiate trades.
This is the first adjustment to the draft’s first-round timing since 2008. After the 2007 first round took a record six hours and eight minutes to complete, the league shortened the time between picks from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.
First-round picks still have the most buffer time. If no further changes are made, teams will still have 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.
The 2026 NFL Draft will be hosted in Pittsburgh from April 23-25. The Las Vegas Raiders are currently in position to make the No. 1 pick, though the race for the top slot could evolve through the final weeks of the NFL regular season.
