As of today, the city of Pittsburgh is officially hosting the 2026 NFL Draft.
It’s an exciting development for the city, which hasn’t hosted the NFL Draft in a long, long time. Despite being one of the most prestigious cities in the NFL and one that is almost always associated with football first, it hasn’t hosted the draft since 1948.
In 1948, the draft was hosted in the ballroom of a hotel, which is a far cry from the three-day extravaganza event that it is now. It’s particularly exciting for Pittsburgh, as the city isn’t traditionally thought of as a tourist attraction. It should drive a lot of people to the city and generate a lot of economic action, which is always a good thing.
Some Steelers players shared their reactions to the news today, via official team video as well as Aaron Becker.
“I don’t think there’s gonna be anywhere to stand.” Patrick Queen quipped. “Hopefully, I don’t drive that day. It is gonna be hectic, but I think with these fans that’s here is gonna be electric.”
It’s good to see Queen already realizing how much Pittsburgh fans care. He may have picked some of this up on his trips to the city as a member of the Baltimore Ravens over the past few seasons, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you are wearing the black and gold.
“I love it. It’s great for the city. Great for, you know, everyone that has a business here, small businesses, everything. It’s great. Can’t wait.” Christian Kuntz shared. “There’s gonna be a lot of yinzers for sure. It’s gonna be a heavy Pittsburgh draft. It’s gonna be awesome.”
“It’s good for Pittsburgh,” Pat Freiermuth noted via Aaron Becker. “It’s good to have fans from all over the world and the country come here to Pittsburgh and check out how great the city is.”
As Kuntz and Freiermuth said, this is a very positive thing for Pittsburgh. While it is quite a nice little city, it takes an event of this caliber to attract people to visit. An event of this scale is also perfect for Pittsburgh. Anything bigger and the infrastructure might not be there, but it’s big enough that an entirely new subset of people will be introduced to the city and potentially come back.
Hopefully, the Steelers will have some franchise momentum going into the 2026 Draft, which would allow the event to accelerate that momentum at the draft itself. The event has become increasingly a spectacle in recent years, and you better believe some Steelers players will be there representing and building the hype for the 2026 season.
