{"id":80568,"date":"2026-04-20T10:58:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/the-athletics-weekly-live-coverage-nfl-draft-and-fa-cup-semi-finals\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T10:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:58:35","slug":"the-athletics-weekly-live-coverage-nfl-draft-and-fa-cup-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/the-athletics-weekly-live-coverage-nfl-draft-and-fa-cup-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athletic\u2019s weekly live coverage: NFL Draft and FA Cup semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It is a special week in the NFL calendar and approaching crunch time in English soccer \u2014 and we at <em>The Athletic<\/em> are ready to cover all the drama with this week\u2019s super schedule of live coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The fun begins on Thursday with this year\u2019s NFL Draft as the nation\u2019s pro teams look to write wrongs, strengthen weaknesses or simply give their fans something to smile about, thanks to the best young and raw football talent available.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the NFL Draft, if you haven\u2019t already taken in Dane Brugler\u2019s latest annual opus then make sure you check out The Beast 2026 right here.<\/p>\n<p>The round ball then takes center stage over the weekend as the world\u2019s oldest club competition, the FA Cup, reaches its last four.<\/p>\n<p>You can share your views, predictions and questions throughout too. Simply email <strong>live@theathletic.com<\/strong> \u2014 and your responses could feature in our coverage, so stay tuned and get involved.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the full live schedule for this week through Sunday, April 26.<\/p>\n<h2>Thursday, Apr. 23<\/h2>\n<p><strong>NFL Draft \u2014 First round<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Will Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese come in as first pick? Will Fernando Mendoza\u2019s National Championship with Indiana fling him to the top of the pile? And where will the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals look as they open the draft with the first three selections \u2014 and in that order?<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing quite like first-round night of the NFL Draft, this year being held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bring on the intrigue, tears, special handshakes, commissioner boos and the one prospect that is somehow made to wait until Friday for his next move. Speaking of which \u2026<\/p>\n<h2>Friday, Apr. 24<\/h2>\n<p><strong>NFL Draft \u2014 Rounds 2 and 3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, our NFL Draft coverage continues on Friday with the second and third rounds. We will bring you every insight into the selections being made, as well as further reaction from Round 1.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7211793\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7211793 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/04\/20065456\/GettyImages-2269785845.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/04\/20065456\/GettyImages-2269785845.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/04\/20065456\/GettyImages-2269785845-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"credits-text\">Erling Haaland and Manchester City are in action in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley this weekend. (Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Saturday, Apr. 25<\/h2>\n<p><strong>NFL Draft \u2014 Rounds 4 to 7<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The NFL Draft wraps up with the final four rounds on Saturday, at which point we could see a lowly pick in Pittsburgh that goes down in history as a true steal. One to rival selections such as Tom Brady (sixth round, 2000), Shannon Sharpe (seventh round, 1990) and Marques Colston (seventh round, 2006).<\/p>\n<h2>Sunday, Apr. 26<\/h2>\n<p><strong>FA Cup semi-final: Chelsea vs Leeds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Premier League title-chasing Manchester City are still in contention for a treble of silverware this season. They face in-form Championship promotion hopefuls Southampton at Wembley on Saturday in the first semi-final of this season\u2019s FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Following that are the fellow English top-flight duo of Chelsea and Leeds, meeting on the same hallowed turf the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Farke\u2019s Leeds are looking good for survival on their Premier League return, and an FA Cup final appearance would far exceed expectations. As for Chelsea\u2019s turbulent season, the prospect of a ninth FA Cup could salvage some genuine success for manager Liam Rosenior.<\/p>\n<p>The two clubs enjoy a bitter historic rivalry too, which could make for a classic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a special week in the NFL calendar and approaching crunch time in English soccer \u2014 and we at The Athletic are ready to cover all the drama with this week\u2019s super schedule of live coverage. The fun begins on Thursday with this year\u2019s NFL Draft as the nation\u2019s pro teams look to write [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-transfers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2263306922.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}