The first game of the 2026 season will be televised by NBC, on Wednesday, September 9. The second game of the 2026 season will stream.
According to The Athletic, the 49ers-Rams game from Australia will be televised by Netflix.
It becomes the third Netflix game of 2026. Currently, Netflix handles two Christmas games.
The move meshes with Netflix’s desire to handle big events. With the NFL reportedly splitting four games it absorbed from ESPN between Netflix and YouTube, Netflix will be in line to get one more game for 2026.
The biggest new event for 2026 will be the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game, which is expected to debut this year.
There are now two more known candidates for the Vikings’ General Manager vacancy.
According to multiple reports, Minnesota has put in requests to interview Rams assistant G.M. John McKay and Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley.
That brings the club’s number of known requests up to seven: McKay, Teasley, Vikings interim G.M. Rob Brzezinski, Bills assistant G.M. Terrance Gray, Titans assistant G.M. Dave Ziegler, 49ers assistant G.M. RJ Gillen, and Chargers assistant G.M. Chad Alexander.
McKay, in particular, could be one to watch for the position, as he worked alongside Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell with the Rams. McKay was Los Angeles’ director of pro personnel and O’Connell was the team’s offensive coordinator when the club won Super Bowl LVI to cap the 2021 season.
The Rams declined the fifth-year option on the contract of cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, according to the NFL’s personnel notice.
The move was expected, as exercising the option would have fully guaranteed Forbes $12.6 million in 2027.
The Commanders made Forbes the 16th overall pick in 2023, but he didn’t last two full seasons in Washington. The Commanders waived Forbes in December 2024, and the Rams claimed him off waivers.
Forbes, 25, started 14 games and played all 17 last season, seeing action on 814 defensive snaps and 82 on special teams. He totaled 45 tackles, three interceptions, 18 passes defensed and a forced fumble in 2025.
Forbes, though, did not start the final two postseason games, playing only a total of 29 defensive snaps against the Bears and Seahawks.
Forbes is one of five players drafted in the first round in 2023 to have his fifth-year option declined.
The Rams grabbed headlines by drafting Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick and they’re adding another rookie quarterback to the roster.
Matthew Caldwell is on the list of 18 undrafted players who have agreed to terms with the Rams. Caldwell spent the 2025 season at Texas, but only attempted eight passes as a backup to Arch Manning. He started five games for Troy in 2024 and previously played at Gardner-Webb.
The Rams have also agreed to terms with North Carolina offensive lineman Austin Blaske, Houston running back Dean Connors, Vanderbilt offensive lineman Bryce Henderson, Arkansas tight end Rohan Jones, North Carolina offensive lineman Chad Lindberg, and Syracuse tight end Dan Villari on the offensive side of the ball.
Wake Forest safety Nick Andersen, Louisville linebacker Wesley Bailey, Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean, Fresno State cornerback Al’zillion Hamilton, Alabama linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green, Minnesota defensive lineman Jalen Logan-Redding, Tennessee defensive lineman Jaxson Moi, Missouri cornerback Drey Norwood, Wisconsin linebacker Darryl Peterson, Houston linebacker Eddie Walls, and Air Force defensive lineman Peyton Zdroik round out the undrafted additions.
It’s now obvious that the Rams have twisted themselves into an ever-changing Eldredge knot over the messaging associated with the stunning decision to use the 13th overall pick in the draft on quarterback Ty Simpson. And the overriding purpose of the fast-moving shell game has been the ongoing management of the relationship with the NFL’s reigning MVP — quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Now that the truth (we think) has come out, it’s fair to wonder how Stafford will react.
Yes, McVay has praised Stafford’s private response publicly. But what else would McVay say? Everything about this has been not about the truth but about selling a version of it that advances and protects the Rams’ interests.
And that’s OK. In football, teams mislead all the time. There are strategic reasons for doing so, because the truth can compromise the overriding strategies.
As to Stafford, there’s a to-date unknown truth regarding his true thoughts as to the decision to use the 13th overall pick in the draft (the same selection the Rams used in 2014 to select Aaron Donald) on someone who won’t do anything to help close the wafer-thin gap with the Seahawks for NFC West, NFC, and NFL supremacy. For the first time since 1967 (when the Packers used a first-round pick on quarterback Don Horn after Bart Starr was named league MVP), the current MVP has seen his potential replacement arrive with the first round of the next draft.
Stafford has said he’ll play this year. A contract has not yet been finalized. The terms (most importantly, the structure) will be key. Stafford, who’s on a year-to-year arrangement with the Rams, may want a true one-year deal, possibly with a no-tag clause for 2027.
Or maybe he’ll ask to be traded, now. (There aren’t many obvious destinations, but someone would surely scrap their current depth chart for him.) Or maybe he’ll decide, like Donald did two years ago, that Stafford has had enough.
He’s made $400 million. He doesn’t need to keep playing.
The Rams were close enough to another Super Bowl win to taste it. They used their bonus pick from the Falcons not on a game-ready player who will get the Rams over the top but on a guy who ideally won’t play in 2026, except in garbage time of blowout wins.
Here’s the point for now. The ever-moving goalposts suggest anxiety from the organization about Stafford’s potential reaction to banking that bonus pick. And now that Simpson has given up the ghost as to the extent to which McVay was involved in scouting him, it’s time to get some popcorn and wait for Stafford’s next move.
Whatever it will be.
