The NFL announced the matchups for its first Thanksgiving Eve game and all three Thanksgiving games ahead of Thursday night’s schedule reveal, so the only thing left to announce for the three-day holiday spread of games was the Black Friday matchup.
That game will feature the Broncos visiting the Steelers in a game that will start at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
It will be the first time that either franchise has played a Black Friday game. The NFL first held a game on the day after Thanksgiving in 2023 and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the league is considering ways to add a second game.
That is what they’ve done with the Thanksgiving Eve game. It will involve the Packers visiting the Rams on Wednesday night in a game broadcast by Netflix.
Thanksgiving’s schedule will start in Detroit as usual. The Lions will host the Bears at 1 p.m. ET on CBS and the Eagles will visit the Cowboys on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Thursday’s action will conclude with the Chiefs in Buffalo to face the Bills at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.
All of the international matchups for the 2026 NFL season were announced on Wednesday morning.
We already knew the first two games on the schedule. The 49ers and Rams will meet in the NFL’s first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1 while the Ravens and Cowboys will head to Brazil to play a game in Rio in Week 3.
There will be three straight weeks of games in London kicking off the next week. The Colts will face the Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 4 and the Eagles and Jaguars will square off in the same place the next week. The Jaguars will stay in London to take on the Texans at Wembley Stadium in Week 6.
From there, it will be on to Paris for the first time in league history. The Steelers will battle the Saints at Stade de France in Week 7.
The Bengals-Falcons matchup in Madrid in Week 9 was announced earlier this week and it will be followed by a Patriots-Lions clash at Allianz Arena in Munich the next weekend. The NFL’s return to Mexico City will come in Week 11 when the Vikings and the 49ers square off on Sunday Night Football.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about his desire to see the league play international games each week and the NFL is moving closer to that goal in 2026.
Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens signed his franchise tag on April 29, and executive vice president Stephen Jones said soon after the team expected Pickens to show up for voluntary work.
Monday was the first team workout for the Cowboys since Pickens signed the one-year, $27.3 million deal, and Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Pickens was not present.
Nothing is mandatory until June 16, so he can stay away until then without being fined.
The Cowboys announced they will not negotiate a long-term deal with Pickens this offseason, and Jones has repeatedly said the team has “zero interest” in trading Pickens.
The Cowboys traded for Pickens a year ago, and he led the team in targets (137), catches (93), yards (1,429) and touchdowns (eight) in 2025.
When edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence signed with the Seahawks last year, he said Dallas was his home but that he moved on to Seattle because he kenw “for sure I’m not going to win a Super Bowl there.”
Lawrence wound up holding the Lombardi Trophy less than a year later and his move from the Cowboys to a Super Bowl title made for an effective recruiting pitch. Dante Fowler played with Lawrence in Dallas in 2022 and 2023, which led to a relationship that Fowler tapped into when looking for advice about his next move. The edge rusher is now teammates with Lawrence again and shared the message he got as part of that conversation.
“If you want to win a Super Bowl, you should come here,” Fowler said, via the team’s website.
Fowler also played for Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde in both Dallas and Atlanta, so Lawrence isn’t the only familiar face he’ll be reunited with as a member of his new team. Lawrence’s story sounds like the big hook for Fowler, however.
“It was amazing, just to be able to play with him for the past couple of years,” Fowler said. “The legacy he left, when he left, it was a big thing, and to see him come here and see how great he played — he was very healthy, he took this defense to another level, and he won a Super Bowl, something that he has been talking about since I met him. So it was really cool to watch him in that position.”
Repeats are tough, but a second Seahawks title in a row might lead to even more players trying to make the jump from Dallas to Seattle in hopes of realizing their championship dreams.
Former NFL quarterback Craig Morton, who led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance, died on May 9 at his home in Mill Valley, California, the Broncos announced Monday. He was 83.
Morton, who spent six seasons with the Broncos from 1977-82, led Denver to its first playoff appearance and a berth in Super Bowl XII. The Broncos went 12-record in 1977 and had home playoff wins over the Steelers and Raiders before losing 27-10 to the Cowboys in the Super Bowl when Morton threw four interceptions against his former team.
For his performance during that 1977 regular season, Morton was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Year. He was also named the Sporting News Player of the Year, the PFWA Comeback Player of the Year and the NFL UPI MVP for the 1977 season.
In that AFC Championship Game win over the Raiders, Morton played through a hip injury that led to him spending days in the hospital ahead of the game.
During his Broncos career, Morton led the team to a pair of division titles and three playoff berths. He finished his career with the most passing yards (11,895), passing touchdowns (74), pass attempts (1,594) and completions (907) in franchise history to that point.
His 41 regular-season wins remain the third-most in franchise history.
Morton was inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame in 1988, two years after his induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
He began his career with the Cowboys as the fifth overall pick in 1965. He played in Dallas until 1974, and the Cowboys traded him to the Giants after he lost the starting job to Roger Staubach.
With the Cowboys, Morton threw for 10,279 yards and 80 touchdowns.
In his career, he threw for 183 touchdowns and 27,908 yards while winning 81 regular-season games.
