The 2026 NFL Draft took place April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. It’s a closely-watched event for football fans, as a draft pick can alter the path of a team (good or bad) for years to come.

Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback from Indiana and reigning Heisman Trophy winner, was the No. 1 pick, chosen by the Las Vegas Raiders.

We used the Trisolute News Dashboard to analyze Mobile News Box data for the event and see which keywords and publishers were winners.

Top Keywords

We found approximately 60 keywords for the NFL Draft that had Mobile News Box visibility rankings.

Top 10 keywords: nfl draft, 2026 nfl draft, draft, 2026 nfl, nfl mock draft, 2026 nfl mock draft, giants draft, patriots draft, 49ers nfl draft, nfl draft chiefs.

Top publishers

• espn.com: Clear winner in Mobile News Box visibility, with more than double the visibility of the second place publisher, usatoday.com. ESPN maintained strong visibility across the NFL Draft, but saw spikes on the last day, the majority coming from a winners/losers article.
• usatoday.com: Maintained moderate visibility throughout the draft, spiked on April 24 with team-specific draft picks analysis for the 49ers and the Rams.
• cbssports.com: Spiked in Mobile News Box visibility at the beginning and end of the draft, with a day 1 preview and a round 7 pick analysis article.
• yahoo.com: Had the most success with draft pick grade articles.
• nytimes.com/athletic: Most successful articles were focused on day 1 of the draft: grading the picks and a general overview of day 1 draft happenings.

AI Overview/AI Mode

AI Overviews:

Appeared on approximately 10% of Mobile News Box SERPs for keywords related to the  NFL Draft. The top keyword that triggered an AIO was “nfl draft time.”

AI Mode: Desktop SERP data only

• Day 1: ESPN.com was cited the most, more than 3x the next publisher (yahoo.com).
• Overall top 5 publishers: espn.com, nfl.com, yahoo.com, usatoday.com, steelers.com.
• The top keyword was “nfl draft.”
• ESPN’s top article on AI Mode: 2026 NFL draft: Analysis of every pick for all 32 teams.
• USA Today scored the most AI Mode rankings with an explainer: Where is the 2026 NFL Draft? Location, dates and draft order. 

Social Platform Performance

The NFL Draft drove significant Google visibility on mobile for social media platforms. Reddit by far was the leader in visibility for the social ranking types like “What people are saying.”

Top 5 social platforms:

• reddit.com
• youtube.com
• x.com
• instagram.com
• bleacherreport.com

Year over Year Insights

Publishers shifted a bit in ranking order but otherwise remained stable YOY.

Last year the top keywords were heavily focused on a single player (Shedeur Sanders) vs this year, where there was more of a focus on team keywords.

Takeaways for Publishers:

• Sports publishers who leaned on reporter and analyst expertise in assessing draft picks earned the greatest visibility on Google’s SERPs during the 2026 NFL Draft. 
• Publisher visibility spikes followed an unpredictable pattern, but monitoring performance throughout the 3-day event can help publishers take advantage of search opportunities. For example, on day 2, foxnews.com was able to jump to third place in Mobile News Box visibility with an article that was critical of the Giants’ draft picks. For the entire NFL draft date span, foxnews.com was in 7th place.
• Mock draft content also performed well. In the week leading up to day 1 of the NFL Draft, mock draft keywords appeared twice in the top 5 ranking keywords. Sports betting and prediction markets make this preview coverage and analysis essential.

Check out more sports-related analysis from the Trisolute News Dashboard:

• March Madness
• 2026 Winter Olympics
• Super Bowl LX

Not yet part of the Trisolute News Dashboard family? Request a FREE DEMO today and find out how your articles rank on Google Discover, Google News, and the SERPs!