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.
Cardinals Clips
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.
The NFL does not expect the Jets, Cardinals, Titans, Dolphins or Raiders to be any good this season.
They are the only teams not to get a primetime game.
The Dolphins finished 7-10 last season but signaled a rebuild with several big moves in the offseason. The Jets, Titans, Raiders and Cardinals all finished 3-14 last season.
The Raiders’ exclusion from primetime is a slight surprise given the presence of No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza and several big-name additions. Kirk Cousins, though, is expected to start the season for the Raiders, so there is no firm date when Mendoza will make his debut.
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.
The Cardinals announced an addition to their defense on Thursday.
They have signed linebacker Stephen Dix to the 90-man roster. He is the eighth undrafted rookie that the Cardinals have signed since the draft wrapped up last month.
Dix spent the last two seasons at Arkansas and played at Marshall and Florida State before moving to the SEC school. He had 79 tackles, four tackles for loss and a sack for the Razorbacks last season.
The Cardinals drafted linebacker Karson Sharar in the sixth round and they signed Jack Gibbens as a free agent. Mack Wilson, Cody Simon, Owen Pappoe, and Austin Keys are the other linebackers in Arizona.
The Cardinals have signed their second-round pick from last month’s draft.
Guard Chase Bisontis put pen to paper on his four-year rookie deal on Wednesday. Four of the team’s draft choices, including first-round running back Jeremiyah Love, previously signed with the team.
Third-round quarterback Carson Beck and fourth-round defensive lineman Kaleb Proctor remain unsigned in Arizona.
Bisontis played right tackle and guard during his first season at Texas A&M, but moved to left guard for his final two seasons with the Aggies. The Cardinals signed Isaac Seumalo as a free agent and his history at left guard suggests Bisontis may be starting his NFL career on the right side.
When the Seahawks won Super Bowl LX, there were nine potential options for the Week 1 season-opening game in Seattle. The list is now down to four.
All NFC teams have nine home games this year. The Seahawks are due to host the 49ers, Rams, Cardinals, Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, and Patriots.
With the 49ers and Rams set to play in Australia on Thursday, September 10, with the Cowboys and Giants slated for Sunday night, September 13, and with the Chiefs hosting the Broncos on Monday, September 14, only four options remain to be the road team on Wednesday, September 9: Cardinals, Chargers, Bears, and Patriots.
A Super Bowl rematch wouldn’t be unprecedented. Ten years ago, the Panthers and Broncos crossed paths in the first game of the season, after Denver beat Carolina in Super Bowl 50. The Broncos held on to win the game, 21-20, when Panthers kicker Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with nine seconds to play.
Unless the league announces the opponent before then, the team that will be present for the Seahawks to hang their latest banner will be known on Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.
