• ESPN’s NFL Draft Daily & NFL Network’s Path to the Draft provide dedicated weekday destinations for draft news, insight & analysis
• Marquee daily football studio shows NFL Live (ESPN), Good Morning Football and The Insiders (NFL Network) continue
• ESPN’s Hey Rookie: Welcome to the NFL, NFL Matchup: 2026 NFL Draft Special, The Draft: Featured return
• NFL Network’s two-hour Path to the Draft: Indiana Showcase airs April 1 covering the Hoosiers’ Pro Day helps kick off the month
• NFL Draft podcasts, ESPN.com add to multi-platform coverage

With anticipation building for the NFL Draft, now just weeks away (April 23–25), ESPN is elevating its annual leadup (March 30-April 22) to the marquee offseason event with expanded programming and added content from NFL Network. Coverage will be anchored by ESPN’s NFL Draft Daily (3 p.m. ET) and NFL Network’s Path to the Draft (6 p.m.), 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.

April 23-25: NFL Draft on ESPN, ABC & NFL Network
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.

ESPN’s NFL Draft Daily & NFL Network’s Path to the Draft dive deeper every weekday

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.

Upcoming special one-hour editions of ESPN’s NFL Draft Daily are listed below. The full NFL Draft Daily schedule can be found here.

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.

NFL Draft specials showcase top prospects across ESPN & NFL Network

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)

Signature daily NFL studio shows complement expansive draft programming

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.

ESPN.com, draft podcasts add to multi-platform offerings

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).

Fans can also follow the latest @ESPNNFL, @ESPN and @nflnetwork on social media.

All of ESPN. All in One Place.

ESPN offers its full suite of networks and services directly to fans on the ESPN App with an ESPN Unlimited subscription, providing more choice, flexibility and access to all of ESPN, including more than 47,000 live events per year, on-demand replays, industry-leading studio shows and original programming, and more. The ESPN App gives fans a unique viewing experience that includes multiview and synchronized two-screen viewing options, swipe-able shortform vertical video and a personalized SportsCenter For You, as well as integrated game stats, ESPN Fantasy sports, betting odds and information from DraftKings, sports merchandise, and more. These features are available to all fans who watch on the ESPN App on mobile and connected TV devices, whether they subscribe directly or through a pay TV package from certain providers. Bundling options available for fans include a Disney+, Hulu, ESPN offering that provides a one-of-a-kind streaming package combining sports with branded and general entertainment. For more visit stream.espn.com.

-30-

Media Contacts:

Danny Chi ([email protected])
Lily Blum ([email protected])
Michael Skarka ([email protected])