We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
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.
The Vikings requested interviews with Lions assistant General Manager Ray Agnew, Broncos assistant GM Reed Burckhardt and Dolphins assistant GM Kyle Smith for their General Manager job, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports.
Agnew joined the Lions in 2021 when Brad Holmes became the GM. He was previously with the Rams as director of player personnel.
Burckhardt became the Broncos’ director of player personnel in 2022, but spent 13 years with the Vikings as a pro scout before that.
Smith is in his first year with the Dolphins, but held the same role with the Falcons from 2023-25. He worked his way up in the Commanders’ organization from 2010-20, becoming vice president of player personnel before leaving for the same job with the Falcons in 2021.
The team now has nine external candidates plus internal candidate Rob Brzezinski.
Chargers assistant GM Chad Alexander, 49ers assistant GM RJ Gillen, Bills assistant GM Terrance Gray, Rams assistant GM John McKay, Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasely and Titans assistant GM Dave Ziegler are the other candidates.
Adrian Peterson had an eventful trip to the Vikings’ facility last week.
Peterson thought he was in town to speak to the team’s rookies ahead of their minicamp, but the Vikings had something to share with him. While Peterson was filming content for the team’s website, former Viking John Randle entered the room and showed Peterson a display that revealed he has been elected to the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
Peterson was the seventh pick of the 2007 draft and he spent 10 years with the Vikings. Peterson led the league in rushing three times during that stint, including a 2,097-yard season in 2012 that ranks as the second-best single-season effort in NFL history. He was named the league MVP that year and is the last non-quarterback to win the award.
Peterson, who is the Vikings’ all-time leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, also set the NFL record for single-game rushing yards by busting loose for 296 yards in a 2007 game. He will also be eligible for election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time in 2027, so there could be back-to-back honors for Peterson in the near future.
The Vikings have officially added a pair of young defensive players.
Minnesota announced on Monday that the club has signed defensive lineman Smith Vilbert and linebacker Bangally Kamara.
Both Vilibert and Kamara had participated in Minnesota’s rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
Vilbert split his time in college between Penn State and North Carolina, playing for the Tar Heels in 2025. Kamara began his collegiate career at Pitt before transferring to South Carolina and finishing his time at Kansas last season.
