The biggest event in the NFL’s off-season is over, and T.J. Rives is joined by Jay Betsill from Dallas/Fort Worth to break down the NFL Draft and more on this week’s edition of the Last Word on Sports Media Podcast.
2026 NFL Draft Draws Big, But Down From Last Year
According to Front Office Sports, the television ratings for the 2026 NFL Draft averaged 6.6 million viewers over the three days across all of its platforms (ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network the first night, ESPN and NFL Network the next two days), which makes it the third highest-viewed draft since the league went to a three-day format in 2010. However, that number is down 12 percent from last year’s average of 7.5 million. The first night saw 13.2 million people watching the event, down slight from last year. T.J. said he watched the NFL Network’s broadcast, but had heard that Mike Greenberg had been a little “shaky” on the first night. Meanwhile, Jay said he kept up with the draft locally on The Ticket, who covered all three days from the Cowboys perspective, but also had to watch ESPN’s coverage to get Mel Kiper Jr.’s take on the selections.
Taking A Look At Other Stories From Sports Media
Many other stories in sports media of late are coming out of Jay’s hometown. Mavericks sensation Cooper Flagg wins the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award over former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel (and will be the honorary pace car for this week’s NASCAR race taking place at Texas Motor Speedway), the Dallas Wings drafting of Azzi Fudd to go along with Paige Bueckers and their relationship both on and off the court. And of course, the developing saga between Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and former NFL insider Dianna Russini, which Jay says is moving so fast that his opinion keeps changing.
“It’s just a really, really strange deal to me and I’m trying to wait for everything to come out, because it seems like every time I start to form an opinion, more news comes out the next day about something else,” Jay told T.J.
The guys also congratulate Kenny Albert for becoming the most used television broadcaster for the four major pro sports in the U.S. (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) with his 1545th broadcast, and mention that a couple other big names are right behind him.
Check out this week’s episode below!
