Get Ready for the NFL Draft with ESPN's Comprehensive Leadup Coverage

Get ready to plan all your coverage of the upcoming NFL Draft with daily mock draft specials and more as part of ESPN's comprehensive leadup to the big annual event.

What's Happening:

• Anticipation is already building for the NFL Draft now just weeks away, set for April 23-25.
• ESPN is elevating their annual leadup to the event (March 30 - April 22) with expanded programming and added content from the NFL Network.
• Coverage will be anchored by ESPN's NFL Draft Daily and NFL Network's Path to the Draft, serving as weekday destinations for draft news and insight.
• Fans will also see many familiar specials across both networks with the return of Hey Rookie: Welcome to the NFL, NFL Matchup: 2026 NFL Draft Special and The Draft: Featured, as well as live pro day coverage with Path to the Draft: Indiana Showcase (April 1, 1 p.m.), featuring projected first pick, QB Fernando Mendoza.

• These offerings will be intertwined with the NFL news, insight and analysis across ESPN’s NFL Live (4 p.m.), and NFL Network’s Good Morning Football (8 a.m.) and The Insiders (7 p.m.), as well as across ESPN’s entire daily studio show lineup including Get Up (8 a.m.), First Take (10 a.m.), The Pat McAfee Show (12 p.m.), Pardon the Interruption (5 p.m.) and multiple editions of SportsCenter. ESPN’s senior NFL insider Adam Schefter will headline conversations across studio programming, providing all the latest information and breaking developments throughout the month.
• Fans will also have access to the latest mock drafts from top draft experts, including ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah and many more with special insight across NFL Draft Daily and Path to the Draft.
• Fans can also follow robust coverage across ESPN.com, featuring insight from top events, industry-leading mock drafts, big boards, player comparisons and position rankings, as well as continuing insight on ESPN’s radio and podcast lineup, and ESPN social channels.
• Live from Pittsburgh, all three days of the NFL Draft will air on ESPN, ABC and NFL Network for the seventh consecutive year, with the three networks having distinct telecasts the first two nights (Thursday, April 23, at 8 p.m. and Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m.), then ABC simulcasting ESPN’s coverage on the final day and NFL Network continuing its unique presentation (Saturday, April 25, at noon). The 2026 NFL Draft will be ESPN’s 47th and NFL Network’s 20th year airing the event as both networks broadcast all 257 picks.

• ESPN and NFL Network studio shows and signature personalities will have a large presence in Pittsburgh documenting all the festivities around the NFL Draft. Additional details on ESPN and NFL Network’s draft week programming will be announced in the coming weeks.
• Headlined by Kiper Jr., Louis Riddick and Field Yates, among many other draft experts, ESPN’s NFL Draft Daily — the network’s newest destination for NFL Draft-focused news, insight and analysis, guiding fans through the entire draft cycle — will add multiple one-hour specials following the release of a new mock draft over the next four weeks.
• NFL Network kicks off the 2026 season of Path to the Draft today, March 30, with episodes airing Monday-Friday at 6 p.m. A rotating team, including Rhett Lewis, Patrick Claybon, Bucky Brooks, Charles Davis, Lance Zierlein, Cynthia Frelund, Steve Smith Sr., Brian Baldinger, Michael Robinson and Marc Ross — with appearances by Jeremiah — will break down each day’s developments in the lead-up to the big day.
• Jeremiah will release his final mock draft for 2026 with Daniel Jeremiah’s Mock Draft on Wednesday, April 22 at 8 p.m. The one-hour special will be led by Davis and Colleen Wolfe, in addition to Jeremiah.
• Hey Rookie: Welcome to the NFL returns to ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. with three 30-minute episodes leading up to the NFL Draft on April 6, 13 and 20, with a final episode airing on April 29. The series will follow top-rated prospects — Arvell Reese (LB, Ohio State), D’Angelo Ponds (CB, Indiana), Denzel Boston (WR, Washington) and Kadyn Proctor (OT, Alabama) — chronicling each player’s combine, pre-draft and draft day experiences.

• In his latest Big Board, Kiper Jr. has Reese and Proctor ranked third and 18th overall, respectively, with Ponds as the sixth ranked cornerback and Boston in the fifth spot for receivers.
• On April 1, a two-hour special Path to the Draft: Indiana Showcase with Lewis, Jeremiah, Brooks and Claybon will provide live coverage of the team’s Pro Day, featuring projected first pick, QB Fernando Mendoza, from 1-3 p.m. On April 9, Path to the Draft will reveal the prospects who will attend the NFL Draft on-site in Pittsburgh.
• Additional NFL Draft-centric studio shows making their ESPN return, include:
  • NFL Matchup – Sal Paolantonioand Greg Cosell will analyze draft prospects in the context of the NFL game airing April 14 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 (then available on ESPN+ on the ESPN App)
  • The Draft: Featured – A compilation of fan-favorite, engaging features from the 2025 college football season across College GameDay and ESPN’s studio lineup (available on demand on the ESPN App)
• ESPN’s signature weekday football studio show, NFL Live — hosted by Laura Rutledge alongside Schefter, Dan Orlovsky, Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark, Mina Kimes and Peter Schrager — will bring fans inside every mock draft, new storyline and more with expert perspective every weekday at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
• NFL Network will bookend fans’ weekdays with draft-focused content with editions of Good Morning Football — with Jamie Erdahl, Kyle Brandt, Manti Te’o, Sherree Burruss and more — at 8 a.m. and The Insiders at 7 p.m., featuring reporters Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero, Mike Garafolo, Judy Battista and others.
• In addition to housing every 2026 mock draft, prospect rankings and the position rankings list, fans can visit ESPN.com for constantly updated information and analysis from NFL Draft experts and reporters. Highlights of NFL Draft offerings include:
  • Weekly draft buzz notebooks from Matt Miller, Jordan Reid and Yates
  • Kiper Jr.’s favorite 2026 prospects at every position
  • NFL analyst Ben Solak on how every team could ace the draft
  • NFL Nation reporters give intel on all 32 teams before the draft
  • NFL analyst Matt Bowen picks the best 2026 prospect at nearly 100 different skills
  • NFL analyst Bill Barnwell sizes up which teams should trade up or down at the draft
• On the podcast front, ESPN’s First Draft podcast — co-hosted by Kiper Jr., Yates and Mike Greenberg — and NFL Network’s Move the Sticks podcast — with Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks — continue to be go-to resources for NFL Draft analysis, with new episodes available Mondays and Thursdays for First Draft, and Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for Move the Sticks. First Draft will also air on ESPN2 weekly in April leading up to the draft at 5:30 p.m. (April 2) and 2 p.m. (April 9, 14 and 21).

Robust Coverage In The Making:

• A key component of the leadup coverage is the new NFL Draft Daily, which comes as part of the NFL agreement between the league and ESPN that was revealed back in August of 2025.
• As part of that deal, the 2026 NFL Draft will be the first that Disney+ and Hulu will also stream ESPN, ABC, and ESPN Deportes’ trio of Draft presentations. All offerings will be available on ESPN’s DTC service. 
• Additional alternate NFL Draft presentations from ESPN will be available on the same streaming platforms, along with the new NFL Draft Daily. 
• ESPN and ABC will each produce telecasts for Rounds 1-3 on Thursday and Friday - a staple of ESPN’s presentation since 2019. On Saturday, ESPN will continue to air Rounds 4-7, with ABC simulcasting the network’s coverage.
• ESPN can add other alternate telecasts across streaming platforms for Rounds 1-7.
• Premier football shows, College GameDay and NFL Live, will continue to be on-site from the NFL Draft.
• ESPN Radio will continue its live broadcast of the NFL Draft.
• Separately, the deal also adds NFL programming and content to ESPN’s new DTC service, as well as to Disney+. 
• The agreement also includes the opportunity for fans to bundle ESPN’s DTC service with NFL+ Premium.