The teams involved in the NFL’s first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game have been set.
Netflix will televise a game between the Packers and the Rams on Wednesday, November 25. The NFL also plans to hold three games on Thanksgiving and at least one game is expected to be played on Black Friday.
This is the second Rams game to be announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal. They will also face the 49ers in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1. That game will also be broadcast by Netflix.
It is the first Packers game to be revealed so far. If history is any guide, it will be one of multiple standalone games for Green Bay.
Rams Clips
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.
Charlie Young, a first-round pick of the Eagles in 1973, has died. He was 75.
Young was the sixth overall selection out of USC. After three years with the Eagles, Young played three years with the Rams, three years with the 49ers, and three years with the Seahawks.
In Philadelphia, Young was a Pro Bowler all three years. He also was a first-team All-Pro as a rookie, and a second-team All-Pro in 1974 and 1975.
He played in 187 regular-season games, with 142 starts. He caught 418 passes for 5,106 yards and 27 touchdowns. Young also appeared in 13 postseason games.
Young appeared in two Super Bowls. With the Rams, he appeared in Super Bowl XIV. He started Super Bowl XVI with the 49ers, which San Francisco won over Cincinnati.
In 2004, Young was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
We extend our condolences to Young’s family, friends, teammates, and colleagues.
The Rams have signed two of their draft picks.
Third-round offensive lineman Keagen Trost and sixth-round wide receiver CJ Daniels have both signed four-year deals with the team, per the NFL’s daily transaction report. Three other picks, including first-round quarterback Ty Simpson, have yet to sign with the team.
Trost played at Indiana State and Wake Forest before transferring to Missouri for the 2025 season. He started 13 games at right tackle during his only season at the school.
Daniels finished up his college time at Miami in 2025 with 50 catches for 557 yards and seven touchdowns. He played at Liberty and LSU over the previous five years.
One of the biggest surprises during the 2026 NFL draft happened when the Rams used the 13th overall pick on quarterback Ty Simpson. Then came the twist: Rams coach Sean McVay seemed sullen, disinterested, and/or disengaged when he and G.M. Les Snead met with reporters to discuss the decision.
What did Simpson think of McVay’s press-conference demeanor from draft night?
“I didn’t really see it,” Simpson said Saturday, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times.
“I know one thing though,” Simpson said. “I know Coach McVay has been in contact and he’s super fired up. And I’m super excited. . . . I know that I couldn’t have asked for a better situation, not only with the best player in the league in front of me but the best coach in the league at the helm.”
McVay admitted the next day that he was “grumpy” during the press conference. Chris Simms, who saw McVay during a recent visit to an Arsenal match in London, said recently on PFT Live that McVay told him the vibe “had to do with some sort of volatile situation that happened before they went out there,” and that “there was some little argument about something.”
It’s hard to imagine Simpson wasn’t aware of one of the most talked-about moments from the first night of the draft, especially since it directly related to him. Then again, maybe Simpson chose his words carefully. Maybe he didn’t “see” it. Surely, someone told him about it.
Or maybe he did see it. And maybe he was asked not to discuss it. That’s what happened when he had a “secret meeting” with McVay before the draft.
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.
Chris Simms spent most of the past week in London. On Saturday night, Simms attended an Arsenal match. Also present was Rams coach Sean McVay.
Simms returned to the U.S. on Wednesday. On Thursday’s PFT Live, he said he spoke to McVay about the press conference following the Rams’ unexpected decision to make quarterback Ty Simpson the 13th overall pick in the 2026 draft. McVay explained to Simms why McVay seemed surly.
“The reason he in the press conference was pissed off had neither to do with him acting or the pick but had to do with some sort of volatile situation that happened before they went out there,” Simms said. “There was some little argument about something. He assured me it was nothing like major, but he was a little peed off right there at that moment. That’s what he told me. I don’t think he’d have any problem with me sharing that.”
McVay seemed more than a little pissed off in the moment. (The following day, he conceded that he was “grumpy” at the time.)
Some believed McVay acted upset in order to ensure that the right message was sent to incumbent quarterback Matthew Stafford, the reigning NFL MVP. A team hasn’t drafted the potential replacement for the league MVP in the first round since 1967, when the Packers drafted quarterback Don Horn after Bart Starr was named league MVP for 1966.
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.
