The 2026 NFL Draft opens Thursday April 24 at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh with Point State Park hosting the fan experience along the Allegheny. The league confirmed final logistics last week, with the Draft Theater seating 4,200 and the Fan Festival running across 18 acres along the rivers. Expected attendance across the three day event is 325,000, which would put Pittsburgh second only to Nashville's 2019 mark for total draft attendance.
The class everyone is talking about is the quarterback class. Six quarterbacks are projected to go in the first round by most consensus mock drafts, which would tie the 2024 class but with significantly more pedigree at the top. The top three names are Arch Manning out of Texas, Dante Moore out of Oregon, and Jadyn Davis out of Michigan. Manning is the presumed top overall pick to the New York Giants, who finished 2 and 15 last year and moved on from Daniel Jones in January. Moore has climbed steadily through the pre draft process and is now a firm top five pick in most projections. Davis is the most polarizing prospect of the three, with some evaluators grading him as a top ten talent and others seeing him as a late first round fit.
Rounding out the first round quarterback conversation are Drew Allar from Penn State, Cade Klubnik from Clemson, and Garrett Nussmeier from LSU. All three had strong senior years and workouts, and all three have at least one NFL team publicly mocking them inside the top 32. League executives have said privately that this class has more plus starter tools from one through six than any group since the 2018 class that produced Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson.
The non quarterback talent is also deep. Caleb Downs, the Ohio State safety, is graded as a top five prospect on most boards and would be the highest drafted safety since Eric Berry in 2010 if he goes in the top ten. Tetairoa McMillan, the Arizona wide receiver, ran a 4.38 at the combine and is expected to come off the board in the top eight. Oregon's offensive tackle Josh Conerly Jr. has moved into the top fifteen after a dominant senior season. On the defensive front, Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter is widely considered the best pure pass rusher to enter the draft since Micah Parsons.
For the Tennessee Titans, holding the fourth overall pick, the conversation has narrowed to three options. Take a quarterback if one of Manning, Moore, or Davis falls, which most mock drafts say will not happen. Trade down with a quarterback needy team like the Raiders at seven or the Jets at ten to acquire extra capital. Or stand pat and take the best non quarterback available, which would likely be either McMillan, Downs, or Carter. Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi said at his pre draft press conference that every option is on the table.
Pittsburgh itself is in a weird draft spot. The Steelers hold the twenty third pick after finishing 9 and 8 and missing the playoffs for the second straight year. The team has publicly supported Kenny Pickett through the offseason but has also been linked to veteran trade targets including Kirk Cousins. Local sentiment, according to a recent Pittsburgh Post Gazette survey, is split almost evenly between wanting a quarterback in the first round and wanting an offensive lineman or edge rusher.
The draft also carries a specific economic story for Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Conference on Community Development projects 213 million dollars in direct economic impact across Allegheny County over the three day event, with hotel occupancy already at 98 percent for Thursday and Friday nights. Restaurant receipts in the Strip District and downtown are projected to rise 40 to 60 percent during the draft window. The Pittsburgh Steelers are also running a specific program through Steelers Charities to direct 2.3 million dollars in draft related revenue toward youth football and literacy programs in underserved neighborhoods across Allegheny County.
For the Black community specifically, the 2026 draft class is worth tracking for another reason. Seventeen of the projected top forty picks are Black, including three of the top five quarterbacks. The HBCU representation is also up, with three projected draftees coming out of Jackson State, North Carolina Central, and Alabama A and M. Jackson State cornerback Kevon Jackson is projected as a day two pick and could become the highest drafted HBCU defensive back since Greg Newsome out of Northwestern in 2021, though Newsome played PWI football.
The Nashville connection to this draft is Arch Manning, whose maternal grandfather Archie grew up in Mississippi but whose New Orleans family connections extend through the region. Nashville has also become a preferred training location for top draft prospects, with seven of the projected top forty picks training at Cumberland Performance off Charlotte Pike leading into the combine. Trainer Marcus Dismuke has worked with three projected first rounders this cycle.
The draft kicks off Thursday April 24 at 8pm Eastern on ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network. Round two and three run Friday evening starting at 7pm Eastern. Rounds four through seven run Saturday starting at noon Eastern. Pittsburgh's forecast calls for mid 60s and partly cloudy across all three days, which would set up what should be one of the more visually impressive draft backdrops the league has staged.