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.
Saints Clips
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.
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.
This season, the Saints will host the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in France. Per multiple reports, the opponent will be the Steelers.
The @OzzyNFL account on Twitter, which has been leaking schedule information, posted earlier tonight that Pittsburgh and New Orleans will square off in Paris on October 25. Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has confirmed the news.
All international games that haven’t been previously announced are due to be disclosed on Wednesday morning. This year, nine games will be played on foreign soil: Three in London, one in Paris, one in Madrid, one in Melbourne, one in Germany, one in Rio de Janeiro, and one in Mexico City.
That’s up from five in 2025. And the league, which currently may stage up to 10 international games under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, hopes to expand that number to 16.
The Saints signed undrafted rookie wide receiver Brock Rechsteiner on Monday, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports.
Rechsteiner left an impression during a tryout at the team’s rookie minicamp.
Rechsteiner is the son of Scott Rechsteiner, who wrestled under the aliases Scott Steiner and Big Poppa Pump and is in the WWE Hall of Fame. His uncle, Rick Steiner, was his father’s tag team partner, and Brock’s first cousin, Bronson Rechsteiner, currently wrestles as Bron Breakker.
Brock Rechsteiner hopes to follow in their footsteps . . . one day.
“I want to do football as long as I can,” Rechsteiner said, via Rod Walker of nola.com. “Once that’s done, I will pursue wrestling.”
In 2025, Rechsteiner caught 36 passes for 383 yards and five touchdowns at Jacksonville State. It got him an invite to the Titans’ rookie minicamp last week before participating with the Saints this weekend and earning a roster spot.
There weren’t any questions about wide receiver Jordyn Tyson’s talent leading into the draft, but there were questions about his durability after a number of injuries at Arizona State.
None of those questions kept the Saints from taking Tyson with the eighth overall pick, but a reminder of his injury history came at the team’s rookie minicamp on Saturday. Specifically, Tyson’s history of hamstring injuries that kept him out of several games last season.
Tyson did not take part in practice and head coach Kellen Moore said it was part of “putting together a plan for him” rather than a new injury.
“Jordyn had a number of things that came up last year during the season,” Moore said at a press conference. “So we got him in our system now and let’s start building this thing the right way.”
Moore noted that rookies “were in and out of different activities” last spring as well and it seems likely that Tyson will continue to be managed closely in the hope that he can keep his injuries in the past.
It’s critical for an NFL coach and an NFL General Manager to be on the same page, at all times. And it’s ideal for the coach and G.M. to work together, and remain together, as long as possible.
Sean Payton had that in New Orleans, where he partnered with G.M. Mickey Loomis for Payton’s entire 16-year tenure with the team. Payton has it now in Denver, with G.M. George Paton.
In the wake of Paton signing a new contract that runs through 2030 (his prior deal was due to expire after 2026), Payton was asked at a rookie minicamp press conference about the Payton-Paton partnership.
“I said this to [Paton] the other day, and look — in our league, it’s almost half the battle,” Payton said. “I said to him, I said, ‘Man, I consider myself very fortunate to have been with one General Manager in New Orleans who I would call a very close friend and a great working partner,’ and then to find another person like George.
“I know that we both feel the same way. We love the grind together. He’s a tremendous asset and all, and he’s very good at what he does. I think we complement each other. I am super excited for him. I said that to you guys at the Combine, it was just a matter of time. We think alike in a lot of cases.”
Paton, who got the job both before Payton was hired and before current ownership bought the team, has thrived due to his ability both to do the basic requirements of the job and to navigate working with the other key members of a pro football operation.
It’s about finding the right way to work toward the same goal and, most importantly, it’s about figuring out how to weather the periodic and inevitable storms in a way that strengthens the relationships. Those who can set aside their personal interests for the greater good tend to figure it out.
Paton has done that. Payton has done that. It’s no surprise that the Broncos have become a short-list championship contender, or that the franchise has had a record rate of season-ticket renewals. After a long stretch of struggling since turning the final year of the Peyton Manning era into a Super Bowl win, the new Pa(y)tons have turned the Broncos into a team that could win another one.
Or maybe two.
The Saints have signed all eight of their draft picks.
Seven of the selections, including first-round wideout Jordyn Tyson, signed with the team on Friday and second-round defensive tackle Christen Miller made it a full set on Saturday. Miller signed a four-year deal with the club,
Miller was the 10th pick in the second round last month. He finished his time at Georgia by posting 23 tackles, four tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in 14 games last season.
With all of their picks signed, the Saints can now put their full attention on getting the eight players ready to contribute this fall.
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.
The Saints have signed seven of their eight draft picks, including first-rounder Jordyn Tyson.
Tyson joined the team as the eighth overall pick last month and was the second wide receiver to come off the board in the first round. He had 158 catches for 2,822 yards and 22 touchdowns in 33 games at Arizona State.
It’s a four-year deal for Tyson with a team option for a fifth season. He will make $32.49 million in his first four seasons.
New Orleans also signed third-round tight end Oscar Delp, fourth-round guard Jeremiah Wright, fourth-round wide receiver Bryce Lance, fifth-round safety Lorenzo Styles, sixth-round wide receiver Barion Brown, and seventh-round cornerback TJ Hall.
