The Pittsburgh Steelers appear to be destined to win the NFL Draft. According to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, Pittsburgh is the front-runner for the 2026 NFL Draft. Pittsburgh and Denver are apparently still in the running to host the 2026 or 2027 drafts. The winners of those bids are likely to be announced on Wednesday during the NFL’s spring meetings in Nashville.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have submitted a bid to host either the 2026 or 2027 NFL Draft in collaboration with Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh, and their offer is one of two that appears to be on track for acceptance. More than 20 towns have allegedly expressed broad interest in hosting a future draft, but Pittsburgh appears to be on the short list of those that could receive one this week.
“We continue to be optimistic about it,” Steelers president Art Rooney stated at the recent NFL owners conference in Orlando.
The Pittsburgh design calls for a draft stage on the North Shore opposite Acrisure Stadium, with additional events taking place in Downtown and Point State Park. According to VisitPittsburgh CEO Jerad Bacher, the city’s proposal is more advanced in terms of timeframe than others considered by the NFL, which might be a good indicator for the Steelers pushing to the front of the line for the two-year bid process.
“The visibility of downtown has to be very clear,” Bacher told our friends at WPXI last week. “So the front of the stage, which the viewers would be gazing into, would face downtown. You could see the stage on this side of Acrisure Stadium, facing downtown.
Detroit hosted the 2024 NFL Draft, generating an estimated $160 million in economic benefits while establishing an all-time attendance record with 775,000 people visiting the Motor City over three days in April.
Green Bay is scheduled to host the 2025 NFL Draft next April. It has also recently been hosted in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Nashville, Cleveland, Las Vegas, and Kansas City. From 1965 until 2014, the draft was held in New York City, mostly at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Pittsburgh has held the draft twice before, in 1948 and 1949.
