Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis gave an update on where things stand with running back Alvin Kamara when he spoke to reporters on Monday and he also touched on the status of a couple of longtime members of the team who remain unsigned for the 2026 season.
Defensive end Cam Jordan has talked about leaving the door open to returning to New Orleans for his 16th season and Loomis said the team is also open to a return. He said, via multiple reporters, that there is a contract offer on the table for Jordan.
Jordan hasn’t signed that contract, obviously, and that suggests he’s looking for something more from the Saints or someone else before making any commitment for the coming season.
While Jordan could be back, it doesn’t look like tight end Taysom Hill will be back in a Saints uniform. Loomis said that there’s no offer out to him and Hill’s emotional words after the final 2025 home game may have been his final ones as a member of the team.
Running back Alvin Kamara sounds like he wants to be with the Saints for the 2026 season, but it remains less than a sure thing that is how all will play out in New Orleans.
Kamara is under contract, but the signing of Travis Etienne in free agency and a contract tweak that makes it easier to part ways with him after June 1 have clouded the veteran’s future with the team. General Manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Kellen Moore have consistently stopped short of making any commitment to Kamara this offseason beyond saying that he’s currently on the roster.
Loomis addressed Kamara’s status again on Monday and alluded to a pay cut being part of the path to Kamara staying put for another season.
“We’re just trying to see how he’s gonna fit on our roster,” Loomis said, via Luke Johnson of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Obviously there’s a resource management element. We’ll get to that over the next week or two.”
Kamara has spent all nine of his NFL seasons with the Saints and it looks like we’ll know sometime next month if he’ll make it a decade.
One of the most memorable games in Monday Night Football History took place in Week Three of the 2006 season, when the Saints beat the Falcons in their return to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Twenty years later, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted a Falcons-Saints Monday night game in New Orleans on the 2026 schedule.
NFL VP of broadcasting planning Mike North says the 2026 schedule has a Week Four Monday night game between the Falcons and Saints at the Superdome because Goodell himself requested that it happen around the time of the 20th anniversary.
“It’s really to the Commissioner’s credit, it was, ‘We’re gonna play Falcons at Saints on Monday night this year, fit it in in that kind of three-week window.’ So, it wasn’t a requirement it had to land in a special week, but it was a requirement, straight from the boss, that it landed on our schedule,” North said.
Some in New Orleans wanted the 2026 game played in Week Three, as the 2006 game was, but North said playing the game in Week Four proved to be a better fit for the NFL’s overall schedule.
“Relative to the exact date of the anniversary, honestly, we figured if we were within a couple of weeks, we were in good shape,” North said. “Fans remember that moment, the electricity, the excitement. If we were a week early, or closer to the day, or a week later, weren’t gonna throw away our best schedule just by being off a couple days. Plus, as you know, there’s a lot of events going on in that region. I don’t have the stadium availability off the top of my head, but relative to the Dome itself, the arena across the street, there’s concerts, there’s basketball games, there’s other things going on at times. It wasn’t a, ‘This game has to be in this week.’”
The 2006 game, remembered most for Steve Gleason’s blocked punt that was recovered by Curtis Deloatch for the Saints’ first touchdown, was a classic. The 2026 game will be an opportunity for New Orleans to celebrate that great moment in Saints history.
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.
As more of the 2026 schedule gets revealed before the full unveiling at 8 p.m. ET, we now know another Week 1 matchup between a pair of NFC teams.
Per Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football, the Saints and Lions will play each other in Detroit to open the season.
Detroit’s Week 2 opponent had already been revealed, as the club will be on the road to face Buffalo as the Bills open Highmark Stadium on Thursday Night Football.
The exact time of the Week 1 contest between the Saints and Lions has not yet been disclosed.
Detroit and New Orleans last faced one another in 2023, with the Lions coming away with a 33-28 victory at the Superdome. Quarterback Jared Goff threw for 213 yards with a pair of touchdowns in that game.
With the Lions missing the postseason at 9-8 in 2025 and the Saints finishing the season 6-11 in Kellen Moore’s first year as head coach, this Week 1 contest is a sneaky intriguing matchup between a pair of 2026 postseason hopefuls.
