NFL Fans Pushing For Change To Draft Before Thursday Night

The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is set for Thursday night.

The Las Vegas Raiders have the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday night's NFL Draft, which is taking place in Pittsburgh. The Raiders are expected to select former Indiana Hoosiers star quarterback Fernando Mendoza. The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner will not be in Pittsburgh, though; instead, he'll be watching the NFL Draft from home with family in Florida.

"Mendoza wants to share the draft experience with his family in Miami," ESPN's Adam Schefter said.

But heading into Thursday night, some NFL fans are pushing for a change to the draft's structure.

The NFL Draft shortened the time between picks this year. The league has reduced the time between first-round picks from 10 to 8 minutes. Change has happened before. Prior to 2007, NFL teams had 15 minutes to make their first-round selections, before it went to 10 minutes in 2008.

But is that still too much time?

NFL fans are pushing for even more chaos

NFL teams have all offseason to prepare for the draft. Do you really need 8 or 10 minutes in between picks?

Some fans are pushing for a shorter transition period.

"Shorten it to five minutes. Eight is still too long!" one fan wrote.

"I think five minutes is perfect," one added.

"Eight minutes feels like too long, still. I'd move it down to five," another fan suggested.

"We don't need to wait that long. Make it five or six minutes at most," one shared.

The full NFL Draft pick time rules:

• Round 1: 8 minutes per pick.
• Round 2: 7 minutes per pick.
• Rounds 3-6: 5 minutes per pick.
• Round 7: 4 minutes per pick.

Is a change needed?

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 8:31 AM.