An NFL 2026 Season Preview: Key Players and Matchups
Explore NFL 2026 openers: Patrick Mahomes plays, Las Vegas Raiders' Fernando Mendoza debuts. Key games: New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys & much more.
Video Transcript
The NFL is here, folks.
Patrick Mahomes has been cleared, to be a full participant as training camps, are getting set to open up.
We know the Raiders, just went ahead and, locked down it looks like their number one pick, right?
Mendoza, he is now- locked in.
Still don't know if he's gonna be the starting quarterback there, Tom, but, Kirk Cousins might still, at least all indications are, Kirk Cousins, could very well be under center by the time we get, to week one.
And some of these week one games and match-ups, I, I gotta give it to the NFL.
I mean, the schedule is phenomenal.
We talked about Giants- Mm-hmm at home against Dallas in week one.
Dallas is a, a two or three-point favorite there with a total of, 48.
That's gonna be your first Sunday Night Football game.
And then you have the complete opposite side of that with Tennessee taking on the Jets in Tennessee.
It's the Robert Saleh, right, revenge game.
Mm-hmm.
That total is 38, and I'm laughing and going, "Well, how are we getting to 38 points with the Jets and Tennessee exa-" Two defensive-minded head coaches with no real offense to speak of.
It feels like, first one to 10 wins, Tom.
What are you thinking of some of these?
It, it certainly feels that way, and frankly, with the Titans, I- I kind of like them against, you know, Saleh, head coach going up against his former team.
I think the script kind of writes itself for them to be on track, at least from week one.
And I will say, a- as I've been joking kind of throughout the off-season, I think the Jets have a pick in week one.
They went the entire season last year without a pick, and they'll have a pick in week one.
Yep.
That's kind of one of the funnier things that I'm gonna be looking to, just because, you know, I do have some hope in Cam Ward, but he's still, just a second-year quarterback.
I will say, looking at some of these lines, the one that I think is gonna stand out to a lot of people would be the- 49ers versus the Rams, Shanahan versus McVay.
Yep.
It's three and a half points.
It's a d- it's a division game, but this game is happening in Australia.
It is happening on- Yep Friday night.
The season opens up on Thursday with the Seahawks raising the banner against the Pats in a, you know, rematch of the Super Bowl, and then we get a game on Friday night in Australia, and everyone's gonna be looking to Shanahan plus three and a half.
Yeah.
I will say, I'm not saying that's a bad bet by any means, it's just we have to take into account all the other circumstances, where this game is in a completely different country very far away with a dramatic time difference.
I, yes.
That's, and that's gonna be the Friday game, which is gonna be, crazy there.
I think we have a Wednesday night game, too, right?
It's New England at Seattle, on September 9th, and that's going to be, the kicker right there.
And that is what, four, four and a half there with, uh- Seattle, being the favorite in Seattle.
And then you follow that up, like you said, with the game in Australia, in Melbourne, with the Rams and the 49ers.
But I still have questions with a couple of quarterbacks here.
A, are the Raiders starting Mendoza, do you think?
And B, w- who is playing quarterback for Minnesota, where they are a favorite at home- against Green Bay in week one?
That's a great question.
For the latter, with the Vikings, we see a lot of reports saying that the QB comtiti- QB competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy is gonna come right down to the wire, or right leading up to week one, or whatever these quotes that I've seen over the past week.
I, I think they're gonna start Murray.
That's just what I think as of now.
I'm not sure if that's the right decision.
For the Raiders, I think they should be starting Mendoza.
That's what I think they- should be doing.
New head coach, he's the number one overall pick.
You wanna bring the fan base some positive momentum heading into the season.
Like, this is the future.
And I think Kirk Cousins is gonna be a great teacher for Mendoza, but going into the season knowing that you have your franchise quarterback starting, it's not gonna be pretty, it's not gonna be smooth.
There's gonna be s- ups and downs, there's gonna be bumps along the way, but this is what you need.
You need him to learn by fire.
Going through- a week-to-week basis knowing that he's not preparing to be the starter I think is something that he needs to do.
And this is something that we see players that are recently r- retired constantly say is like, "Oh, you have to learn how to be a pro."
And the week-to-week preparation of doing that is important.
Not running the scout team, taking all the snaps with the, the ones, I think is important, and that's what Mendoza needs to learn.
So new quarterback, new, new head coach.
The future is Bowers, Mendoza, and Gent.
Let's get that, that ball rolling immediately.
