Washington to host 2027 NFL draft as Josh Harris tells Donald Trump he's 'the ultimate Commander'

Devin Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer on May 5, 2025

Published in Football

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The 2027 NFL draft has its official location: it will be held in Washington D.C. The announcement was made in the Oval Office on Monday by President Donald Trump, who was joined by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Washington Commanders and Sixers owner Josh Harris and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

The draft will be held on the National Mall across the three-day event. The Commanders will host the draft in partnership with Events DC, the city’s local organizing committee.

President Trump and Goodell are expecting over one million attendees for the 2027 event.

“The draft has really become one of the great entertainment sports events,” Goodell said following the announcement. “Just a week ago in Green Bay, we had close over 600,000 people attend, the year before in Detroit, we had close to 800,000.

“We not only believe it’s a great site, we believe it is consistent with what the President said, which is investing in our communities, investing specifically here in our nation’s capital.”

“What a great day for Washington,” Harris added. “To host the NFL draft in 2027, on the mall, I believe we’ll get over a million people and it’s going to be an amazing day and it will showcase what Washington is all about. … Washington is the gateway city of our country and we can’t wait to get started.”

The news comes a week after the Commanders announced its plans to build a new stadium in D.C. at the site the old RFK Stadium. The project will total $4 billion and the new stadium is set to open by 2030. The Commanders last played at RFK Stadium in 1996 and have been at Northwest Stadium (previously FedEx Field) in Landover, Md., since 1997.

Trump was also gifted aCommanders jersey with his name on the back, because he’s “the ultimate Commander,” Harris said and noted that “there’s no bird on it,” after the Eagles visited the White House last week.

The 2026 NFL draft will be held in Pittsburgh next April.

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