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.
Lions Clips
The Bills have made a few roster moves on Tuesday.
Buffalo announced the club has signed tight end Shane Zylstra along with a pair of 2026 draft picks: fourth-round receiver Skyler Bell and fourth-round linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr.
Zylstra has appeared in 35 games with six starts in his career, all for the Lions. He’s caught 18 passes for 136 yards with four touchdowns.
As a corresponding move to add Zylstra, the Bills released kicker Maddux Trujillo, who had joined the club in January on a futures deal.
The Lions have taken care of some important business with their rookie class.
Detroit announced on Tuesday that the club has signed its 2026 draft class.
That means first-round offensive tackle Blake Miller, second-round edge rusher Derrick Moore, fourth-round linebacker Jimmy Rolder, fifth-round cornerback Keith Abney, fifth-round receiver Kendrick Law, sixth-round defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard, and seventh-round defensive lineman Tyre West are all under contract on their rookie four-year deals.
Miller is expected to compete to start at right tackle.
Penei Sewell, a first-round pick in 2021, had played at right tackle over the last several years. But he’s flipping over to left tackle after Taylor Decker was released by the team in March.
Additionally, the Lions announced they’ve signed nine undrafted free agents: Quarterback Luke Altmyer, defensive back Aamaris Brown, linebacker Erick Hunter, defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina, tight end Miles Kitselman, defensive lineman Anthony Lucas, defensive lineman Eric O’Neill, offensive lineman Melvin Priestly, and cornerback De’Shawn Rucker.
Running back Isiah Pacheco is known for his aggressive style, often described as someone who runs as if he’s angry at the ground.
After completing his rookie contract with the Chiefs, Pacheco signed a one-year deal with the Lions in free agency. Though Pacheco has been a starter for much of his career, helping Kansas City win back-to-back Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023, he’s now set to slot behind Jahmyr Gibbs in Detroit. Effectively, Pacheco is replacing David Montgomery, who was traded to the Texans earlier in the offseason.
With the way the Lions want to run the ball, Pacheco should still be a key piece of Detroit’s offense in 2026.
In a recent interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Lions General Manager Brad Holmes noted that he and head coach Dan Campbell have always been aligned on needing two good backs to have a truly effective run game.
“Getting Pacheco, me and Dan have always been big fans of Pacheco,” Holmes said. “It’s his mindset and his intent in how he runs. As you know, it’s hard to get yards in this league, and those holes close up quick. And so, if you have the right mindset, you can get a lot of hidden yards — if you just have a little bit more desire.
“So, I think he’s going to be a really good complement. Always been a fan from afar, just love how he runs [since] he’s been in the league. And we don’t expect anything different to being a really good complement to Jahmyr.”
Pacheco has dealt with injuries the last two years, limited to 20 games over that span. In 2025, he rushed for 462 yards with one touchdown and caught 19 passes for 101 yards.
Pacheco’s best season was his second, as in 2023 he rushed for 935 yards with seven touchdowns and caught 44 passes for 2244 yards with two TDs.
The Bills will open their new stadium in Week 2.
The NFL announced Monday that Buffalo will host the Lions on Thursday Night Football on Sept. 17. It will be the first game played at Highmark Stadium.
Prime Video will broadcast the game as part of its Thursday Night Football package.
The Bills are replacing their longtime home, which opened as Rich Stadium in 1973, with a new $2 billion facility across Abbott Road.
The Bills have won their past four home openers dating to 2022, averaging 38.5 points per game.
The NFL will announce the full schedule on Thursday.
The five-game package that at one point seemed to be headed for YouTube will instead be split between Netflix and Fox.
Per multiple reports, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Monday that the company will add a pair of nationally-televised games to its existing Sunday afternoon package.
One of the games will originate in Germany, giving Fox the first-ever tripleheader of games on a single day on broadcast TV. That game will be hosted by the Lions. That game will be played on Sunday, November 15.
The other game will be played on the Saturday of Week 15, in December.
Earlier this year, the NFL invited partners to bid on a five-game package. After YouTube emerged as the favorite, it changed to YouTube getting nothing. The other two companies that were among the three finalists — Netflix and Fox — will divide the quintet of standalone games. Netflix has three (giving it five for the season), and Fox has two.
The NFL will announce the full 2026 schedule on Thursday, May 14, but the league’s international slate of games will be revealed earlier than the domestic ones.
The matchups for this year’s international games will be announced on NFL Network at 9 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday.
Nine international games are on the docket this year, but the matchups for two of them have already been announced. The 49ers and Rams will meet up in Melbourne in Week 1 and the Cowboys will face the Ravens in Rio in Week 3.
One team in each of the other seven games is already known. The Jaguars will play in London twice and the Commanders will be involved in the city’s third game. The 49ers will be in Mexico City, the Falcons will be in Madrid, the Lions will be in Munich and the Saints will take part in the NFL’s first game in Paris.
After trading Dexter Lawrence, the Giants have brought in a veteran defensive tackle.
According to multiple reports, New York has agreed to terms with D.J. Reader on a two-year contract.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the deal is worth $12.5 million in base salary and can reach $15.5 million with incentives.
Reader, who turns 32 in July, spent the last two seasons with the Lions. He started all 17 games for Detroit in 2025, playing 53 percent of the club’s defensive snaps. He finished with 28 total tackles and four QB hits.
In his 10 seasons, Reader has registered 12.5 sacks, 27 tackles for loss, and 56 QB hits. He’s appeared in 137 games with 128 starts for Houston, Cincinnati, and Detroit.
Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold’s second NFL season was hampered by a shoulder injury that led him to have surgery early in the offseason, but he doesn’t think it will continue to be an issue when the team gets to training camp this summer.
Arnold told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that he doesn’t know what he’ll be able to do before the offseason program, but “I know I’m expected to be there” once the Lions hit the field for camp in August. Once he’s back, the 2024 first-round pick will be trying to build on what he considered to be a step forward in his second NFL season.
“Before I got hurt I was getting in my groove, figuring things out,” Arnold said. “Started playing my best ball and then just dealing with that injury, nagging it, so I’m just excited to see where I’ll be at with not having any injuries and just really looking forward to being out there with my team.”
The Lions are hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 9-8 record that kept them out of the playoffs last season. Arnold’s return to health won’t get that done on its own, but it would be a boost to those hopes in Detroit.
Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf will not face criminal charges for his altercation with a fan during a game against the Lions at Ford Field, prosecutors in Detroit announced today.
The fan, Ryan Kennedy, is pursuing a civil lawsuit, but the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office says it will not prosecute.
“At approximately 5:30 p.m., it is alleged that [Kennedy] left his seat holding a Metcalf jersey to get an autograph. As he approached the front railing of the stands, he said something to Mr. Metcalf. As Mr. Metcalf approached the stands, there was a brief interaction where Mr. Metcalf grabbed his shirt and pushed him back. The fan did not appear to be injured, nor did he seek medical attention at the game. After an extensive review of all the relevant evidence, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has determined that charges will not issue in this case,” the prosecutor’s statement said, via the Detroit Free Press.
In addition to suing Metcalf, Kennedy is suing Ford Field management and former NFL players Chad Johnson and Shannon Sharpe, who suggested that Metcalf was motivated by Kennedy using racist language, which Kennedy denies. Kennedy’s lawyer says the decision not to file criminal charges has no bearing on the civil lawsuit.
