New eight-minute limit to pick results in first round finishing in less than three hours

The first round of the 2026 NFL draft moved fast.

This year, the NFL changed the rules so that teams got only eight minutes to put in their first-round picks, and as a result the first round finished in under three hours.

According to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, the official time of this year’s first round was 2 hours, 53 minutes.

That’s 36 minutes shorter than last year’s first round, which lasted 3 hours, 29 minutes. Last year, teams were allowed to take 10 minutes between picks.

The draft used to be a marathon, with teams getting 15 minutes between first-round picks. In 2007, the first draft Commissioner Roger Goodell presided over, the first round lasted 6 hours, 8 minutes.