Washington, D.C. will host 2027 NFL Draft as Commanders prepare to return to the city
The draft will be held at the National Mall when it heads to Washington, D.C., for the first time
The NFL Draft is headed to the nation's capital.
The league announced Monday that Washington, D.C., will host the NFL Draft in 2027, with commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris joining President Donald Trump at the White House.
Trump said the draft will take place on the National Mall, a possibility Axios first reported Sunday.
It's official.
The 2027 NFL Draft is headed to Washington, D.C.! pic.twitter.com/cM6nZ1Tg8B
— NFL (@NFL) May 5, 2025
The decision to hold the draft in D.C. comes a week after the Commanders unveiled plans to return to the city and the RFK campus they used to play at for decades. The team is set to build a new stadium that will hold approximately 65,000 people and include a roof. The goal is to have the stadium, which will drastically improve the Commanders' chances of hosting a Super Bowl, open by 2030.
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The Commanders won three Super Bowls when they used to play at RFK Stadium. The team left for Landover, Maryland, before the 1997 season. RFK Stadium has not been used since 2017, and D.C. gained control of the land in December — which helped lead to the Commanders' deal to return to the site. The team is expected to invest about $2.7 billion into the stadium, though the move has yet to be approved by the D.C. Council.
The NFL Draft was held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last month for the first time in history. The draft was previously held in New York for decades before moving around again in 2015. More than 600,000 fans attended the draft over the three days this spring, which is among the most attended drafts in history and roughly double the population of the Green Bay metropolitan area.
Pittsburgh is set to host the NFL Draft next year. Denver also submitted a bid to host the draft in 2027. With D.C. getting the nod instead, the Broncos will likely be high on the list in the near future.
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