The NFL Draft 2021 Date And Time Has Arrived

nfl draft 2021 date

The NFL Draft is just a few days away and fans are ready to find out who their team will select for the next season. The 86th annual event takes place Thursday, April 29 through Saturday, May 1. The first round begins at 8 p.m. ET, followed by rounds two and three on Friday and the final four rounds on Saturday. The televised coverage will air across ABC, ESPN and NFL Network and is available to stream on those networks’ apps.

The 2021 NFL Draft will take place in downtown Cleveland at venues around FirstEnergy Stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The event is expected to be the largest in the history of the league’s draft, and it will feature 259 picks over three days. Cleveland is hosting the draft for the second time and has been preparing for it all year. The city has strict security measures and will require everyone entering the stadium to wear masks. The league has also made plans to enforce a ban on cell phones in the audience, which is a major change from past years.

A total of 50,000 people will be allowed to attend this year’s draft, which is down from the 75,000 capacity last year in Chicago. Some prospects will not be able to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the majority of them will be there in person. Presumptive top overall pick Trevor Lawrence will be among them. The event will begin with a primetime broadcast of ESPN’s studio show hosted by Mike Greenberg, who is making his debut as a host this year. Greenberg will be joined on Day 1 and Day 2 by analysts Mel Kiper Jr., Louis Riddick, Booger McFarland, Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen. ABC’s coverage, which will air from a nearby set at the NBC Sports Building in Cleveland, will be anchored by Maria Taylor and include analyst Kirk Herbstreit along with college football experts Jesse Palmer and David Pollack.

In addition to the NBC show, each network will carry its own live streaming coverage on their respective apps. The NFL app, ESPN app and the ESPN+ app will all offer the draft’s coverage, but you’ll need to authenticate your TV provider before viewing. Those apps are available for both mobile devices and streaming TV platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

Some teams have discussed moving the draft to earlier in the spring, but sources tell me the league does not want to do that. It has its priorities in order and wants to capitalize on fruitful TV windows. If the schedule did get shifted, it would likely be in 2022. The Senior Bowl and the NFL combine are usually held in late January, so those events could move up as well.