As ESPN takes over NFL Network, NFL Network will continue to do its own thing.
Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reports that NFL Network will continue to televise its own coverage of the NFL draft.
The news comes after months of speculation that ESPN would pull the plug on NFL Network’s competing draft coverage, either by simulcasting the ESPN draft coverage on NFL Network or replacing draft coverage with other programming.
On April 1, all NFL Network employees become employees of ESPN. Their current contracts will continue; upon expiration, ESPN will decide whether to extend the contracts.
Still, this development suggests the NFLN will continue to have its own identity — even if NFLN will at times become the destination for broadcasts that are nudged away from primary ESPN channels. Last week, the UFL quietly announced that a pair of games that had been due to be broadcast on ESPN-branded platforms will move to NFL Network.
Will lines be blurred between ESPN and NFL Network? Absolutely. For the 2026 NFL draft, however, the lines won’t be obliterated.
That could change in the future. For now, NFL Network will have its own footprint for the draft — as an alternative to the usual offerings on ESPN and, in recent years, ABC. Throw in Pat McAfee’s draft broadcast, and Disney will now have four different presentations of the draft.
