In a sea of team-produced schedule-release video (some of which have morphed into way-too-long short films), there are two ways to stand out. One, be really good. Two, be really bad.
As to the latter, the Cardinals are the 2026 champions.
Via Yanyan Li of Front Office Sports, the Cardinals’ offering was relentlessly mocked as “AI slop.” Because, frankly, it is. Watch for yourself. (And then peruse the replies.)
Li notes that the Arizona effort apparently prompted multiple other teams to emphasize that they did not use AI in the creation of their schedule-release videos.
Regarding the substance of the Cardinals’ video, the mascot-driven effort didn’t resonate for most. The vast majority of the jokes simply didn’t land.
There’s no requirement for teams to make a schedule-release video. And it’s also not mandatory that the effort be aimed at going viral in a good way. For every team that chooses to try, there’s a risk it will go viral in a bad way.
Which the Cardinals have learned, the hard way.
Former NFL defensive end Josh Mauro died last month at 35. Via the California Post, authorities have determined that Mauro’s death occurred as a result of an accidental drug overdose.
Officially, the cause of death was “acute combined fentanyl, cocaine, and ethanol intoxication.”
Mauro, who played college football at Stanford from 2010 through 2013, went undrafted in 2014. After four years with the Cardinals, Mauro spent one with the Giants and one with the Raiders. He returned to Arizona for the final two season of his career, in 2020 and 2021.
He appeared in 80 career regular-season games, with 40 starts.
Though they drafted quarterback Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 overall in April, the Raiders are one of five teams without a scheduled primetime game in 2026.
That’s not something new from the NFL, as the Titans didn’t have a primetime game in 2025 either after selecting quarterback Cam Ward with the first overall pick.
While the Raiders are a storied team with a nationally recognized brand, the fact that the team has won just seven games over the last two seasons is surely factoring into how attractive — or, in this case, unattractive — the club is for games in a standalone window.
In a conference call on Friday, NFL VP of broadcasting planning Mike North was asked whether or not the uncertainty of Mendoza being Las Vegas’ starting quarterback factored into the decision to keep the Raiders out of a primetime slot.
“As far as the Raiders go, I mean, nobody knows if or when Mendoza might play,” North said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN. “It would certainly be great if we knew. We don’t. But they went out and signed a very competent veteran quarterback, and if they find themselves, you know, hovering around .500 and playoff-relevant in the middle of the season, they might be a little more reluctant to pull the trigger and move to the rookie. And if they are playoff-relevant, they will find themselves flexed into bigger national television windows, whether it’s Sunday night, Monday night, or just a bigger footprint on a Sunday afternoon.
“Not to point fingers, but I think the best comp is probably Tennessee from last year. They drafted No. 1 overall, took a quarterback who looks like he can play in this league, [and] they didn’t happen to get a national television appearance last year, either. … We don’t draft our way into primetime. We play our way into primetime.”
While head coach Klint Kubiak and the rest of the Raiders’ brass have said that they’d prefer to have a veteran start over a rookie quarterback early, Mendoza could be in the starting lineup sooner than later over veteran Kirk Cousins. We’ll see how Las Vegas’ quarterback situation plays out and whether or not the club can play its way into a flexed primetime spot as the season unfolds.
It’s one thing to know generally that a team will be facing a tough slate of opponents in the upcoming season. It’s another thing to see the schedule laid out, one game after another.
For the Cardinals, 2026 was always destined to be a long year. They play three of the best teams in the entire league, twice each, thank to membership in the NFC West. The Cardinals play all teams from the AFC West. They play all teams from the NFC East. And that fourth-place schedule includes the Lions (somehow) and the Saints, who began to surge late in the 2025 season.
Now that the schedule is out, it’s looking even worse for the Cardinals. Via DraftKings, they’re the underdogs in every game. In eight of the games, Arizona is on the wrong end of a double-digit spread.
The objectively winnable games are few and far between. There’s a cluster of them after a very late Week 14 bye. By then, the Cardinals may be in full-blown tank mode.
Here’s the full schedule, with the current spreads:
Week 1: at Chargers (-11.5).
Week 2: Seahawks (-10).
Week 3: at 49ers (-11.5).
Week 4: at Giants (-7).
Week 5: Lions (-8.5).
Week 6: at Rams (-13.5).
Week 7: Broncos (-7.5).
Week 8: at Cowboys (-10.5).
Week 9: at Seahawks (-13.5).
Week 10: Rams (-10.5).
Week 11: at Chiefs (-11.5).
Week 12: Commanders (-4.5).
Week 13: Eagles (-8.5).
Week 14: bye
Week 15: Jets (-1.5).
Week 16: at Saints (-5.5).
Week 17: Raiders (-1.5).
Week 18: 49ers (-8.5).
The NFL did the Chiefs a favor, giving them an early off week as Patrick Mahomes works his way back.
The Chiefs and Panthers have the earliest possible bye, getting an off week in Week 5.
The Chiefs quarterback tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in a Dec. 14 game against the Chargers and underwent surgery the following day. There is no timeline for his return, although Mahomes reportedly is ahead of schedule in his rehab and is shooting for Week 1.
If he’s not ready, Mahomes would miss only four games in six weeks. Those four games are the Broncos, Colts, Dolphins and Raiders, so the start to the season is not nearly as hard as it could have been.
The Cowboys and Cardinals have the latest possible off week, with their bye coming in Week 14.
Here are the other bye weeks:
Week 6 — Bengals, Lions, Dolphins, Vikings.
Week 7 — Bills, Jaguars, Chargers, Commanders.
Week 8 — Giants, Texans, Saints, 49ers.
Week 9 — Steelers, Titans.
Week 10 — Bears, Broncos, Eagles, Bucs.
Week 11 — Seahawks, Rams, Falcons, Patriots, Browns, Packers.
Week 13 — Ravens, Jets, Colts, Raiders.
