The Shedeur Sanders slide lasted into the third day of the draft. That was bad for him, good for the draft.

Per the NFL, Saturday’s coverage averaged 4.3 million viewers across all platforms. It was a 43-percent increase over the final day of the draft from 2024.

All three days showed a bump over 2024. The first night increased by 11 percent, and the second was up by 48 percent. Each day sets a level that it will be hard for the 2026 draft to match — unless Arch Manning declares and then has a similar free fall.

The specific breakdown on Saturday would be interesting to see. An average of 4.3 million over the full day means all day, until the never ending process was finally put out of its misery with the 257th selection. (They should call the last pick Dr. Kevorkian, not Mr. Irrelevant.)

The audience likely began to drop, possibly significantly, after the selection of Sanders with pick No. 144. With ESPN handing off the coverage immediately to a UFL game that averaged 615,000 viewers (the highest number in a very disappointing Week 5 for the spring league), chances are that the lead-in audience was a fraction of the total average.

The release regarding the ratings also points out that “more than 600,000 fans attended” the draft in person. We explained several caveats to that number when the figure first emerged, including both the day-to-day duplication and the high likelihood that the same person attending the draft on the same day was counted more than once. Or, by Saturday, more than twice.