What happened on night one of the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh

What’s happening

The 2026 National Football League (NFL) Draft opened Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Pittsburgh, with the Las Vegas Raiders using the first overall pick on Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza. The opening round ran along the city’s North Shore, with the stage set between Acrisure Stadium and Point State Park, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the Ohio River.

The video at the center of this article is The Pat McAfee Show’s “7th Annual Draft Spectacular,” a live, several-hour reaction broadcast hosted by former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee from a stage in Pittsburgh. McAfee was joined by his regular crew, retired Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, and ESPN insider Peter Schrager. According to ESPN’s pre-draft press release, this was the third straight year that McAfee’s program covered the entire first round live across YouTube, TikTok, X and the ESPN App.

For older sports fans, the location matters as much as the picks: this was the first NFL Draft held in Pittsburgh since 1948, and it drew the largest single-day crowd in draft history.

Background

The NFL Draft is the league’s annual selection meeting, where the 32 clubs take turns choosing eligible college players in a fixed order, with the worst regular-season teams generally picking earliest. It has grown from a closed industry event into a traveling, three-day spectacle. Detroit hosted in 2024 and set the prior single-day attendance record at more than 275,000 fans, according to local reporting from Pittsburgh’s Beaver County Radio.

For the 2026 edition, the league shortened the time between first-round picks from 10 minutes to 8 minutes, according to Wikipedia’s draft summary citing league announcements. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the early picks on stage, as is tradition.

Pat McAfee, who was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2009, has built his post-NFL career around a daily sports show that joined ESPN in 2023. His draft program leans on insider voices like Schrager and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, plus former teammates including AJ Hawk and AQ Shipley. The 2026 broadcast marked the show’s seventh year producing draft-night coverage in some form, even though only the most recent three have aired across ESPN platforms.

What independent sources confirm

The top of the board. The Las Vegas Raiders selected Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner who led the Hoosiers to a 16–0 season and a national championship, with the first overall pick. NFL.com and the Raiders’ official site both confirm the selection; the Heisman Trust noted Mendoza became the 26th Heisman winner taken first overall and watched the announcement from Miami with his family rather than attending in Pittsburgh.

The rest of the first round. CBS News and NBC News both published full first-round results that match the same order. After Mendoza, the New York Jets took Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey at No. 2, the Arizona Cardinals took Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at No. 3, the Tennessee Titans took Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate at No. 4, and the New York Giants took Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese at No. 5. Picks six through eight went Mansoor Delane (LSU cornerback) to the Kansas City Chiefs after a trade up with Cleveland, Sonny Styles (Ohio State linebacker) to the Washington Commanders, and Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State wide receiver) to the New Orleans Saints.

Quarterbacks were scarce. Only one other quarterback came off the board on Thursday night: Alabama’s Ty Simpson, taken by the Los Angeles Rams at No. 13, a higher slot than most public mock drafts had projected. The next quarterback selected, Miami’s Carson Beck, did not go until pick No. 65 on the second day, according to NFL.com.

The host city’s pick. The Pittsburgh Steelers, picking before their hometown crowd at No. 21, selected Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanacho. They later took Penn State quarterback Drew Allar at No. 76 on Day 2, per NFL.com.

Attendance. Beaver County Radio, citing the NFL, reported that more than 320,000 fans attended the first day of the draft in Pittsburgh, breaking the single-day record Detroit set in 2024. The previous all-three-day record of about 700,000, also held by Detroit, was not broken on opening night.

What’s still unclear

The Pat McAfee broadcast spent significant time on rumors and inside-baseball talk that mainstream outlets did not corroborate in writing. Examples include speculation that ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky had privately predicted Ty Simpson would rise into the top half of the first round, claims about specific teams that “almost” traded up, and on-air joking about exactly how close Mendoza’s Miami home was to Hard Rock Stadium. None of those side narratives change the public record of who was picked where, but they should be treated as on-air banter rather than confirmed reporting.

The show also referenced post-draft contract figures and team roster moves. Sportico has reported that 2026 rookie signing bonuses are running roughly 18.5% higher than the prior class, but specific Mendoza contract terms had not been finalized at the time the broadcast aired and should be verified against official team announcements before being treated as fact.