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.
Jets Clips
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 new Breece Hall contract with the Jets has been widely characterized as having a value of $45.75 million over three years. That equates to an average of $15.25 million per year.
The full details of the contract have arrived at PFT HQ. We’ll see below whether the numbers match the reports.
Here they are, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $5 million.
2. 2026 90-man roster bonus: $5 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 base salary: $5.16 million, fully guaranteed.
4. 2026 48-man per-game roster bonus: $340,000 total, fully guaranteed (but must be earned).
5. 2027 base salary: $13.16 million, fully guaranteed.
6. 2027 48-man per-game roster bonus: $340,000 total, fully guaranteed (but must be earned).
7. 2028 base salary: $14.16 million.
8. 2028 48-man per-game roster bonus: $340,000.
The contract includes $750,000 per year in incentives. He’s eligible for $250,000 each year for making it to the Pro Bowl roster, $250,000 each year for gaining 1,416 yards from scrimmage, and $250,000 each year for scoring seven rushing touchdowns.
The per-year average of the base package is $14.5 million, not $15.25 million. The incentives, if earned, would push the average to $15.25 million annually.
The deal fully guarantees the first two seasons, at $29 million in total pay.
Hall was eligible for a one-year, $14.293 million salary under the franchise tag. He had not accepted it. The contract, therefore, isn’t an extension; there was nothing to extend. It’s a new, three-year deal that replaces the tag.
The Jets officially signed wide receiver Tim Patrick on Thursday.
Patrick visited with the team and agreed to terms on a deal for the 2026 season on Wednesday. The Jets waived kicker Will Ferrin in a corresponding move.
Patrick will join Garrett Wilson, first-round pick Omar Cooper, and Adonai Mitchell at the top of the team’s receiver depth chart. Patrick had 15 catches for 187 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games for the Jaguars last season.
Patrick had 176 catches for 2,403 yards and 15 touchdowns for the Lions and Broncos before landing with the Jags.
Ferrin signed with the Jets after going undrafted this year. He kicked at BYU and Boise State during his time in college.
It looks like Titans head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll won’t have to wait long for matchups against the teams they used to coach.
Saleh was the head coach of the Jets from 2021 until he was fired during the 2024 season and NFL reporter Jordan Schultz reports that his first game with the Titans will be a visit from his former employers. It will be the second straight year that the Jets go down memory lane to open the season as they faced Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers in Week 1 last year.
Daboll was hired by the Titans after his three-plus years as the Giants’ head coach came to an end 10 games into the 2025 season. Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post reports that the Titans will visit the Giants at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.
That stadium is also the home to the Jets, so the game will elicit some memories for both of the new Titans coaches.
The Jets added rookie Omar Cooper to their receiver group late in the first round of the draft and they’re now set to add a veteran wideout to the corps as well.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com reports that the Jets have agreed to terms with Tim Patrick. Patrick visited with the team on Wednesday.
Patrick spent last season with the Jaguars and caught 15 passes for 187 yards and three touchdowns. He spent six seasons with the Broncos before moving on to Jacksonville, but only saw action in four of those years because a torn ACL and a torn Achilles forced him to miss 2022 and 2023. He played for Detroit in 2024.
Patrick had 143 catches for 2,009 yards and 12 touchdowns in Denver. He had 33 catches for 394 yards and three touchdowns in Detroit. Jets General Manager Darren Mougey worked for Denver when Patrick was there and head coach Aaron Glenn was the Lions’ defensive coordinator in 2024.
In addition to Cooper and Patrick, the Jets have Garrett Wilson, Adonai Mitchell, Isaiah Williams, Arian Smith and Irv Charles at receiver.
Jets running back Breece Hall’s first four seasons set him up for the contract extension he signed this month, but he doesn’t think that he’s shown all he can offer in the NFL.
The Jets have gone 22-46 and gone through coaching and General Manager changes since Hall was selected in the second round of the 2022 draft and they’ve also cycled through a number of quarterbacks who have fallen short of the level of play needed to succeed in the NFL. Hall referenced those facts during a Tuesday press conference while saying that he feels confident in the direction that head coach Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey have put the team on as they head into the 2026 season.
“I’m the only running back that’s consistently a top-10 back in the league that hasn’t in the past always been in the most ideal situations,” Hall said, via SNY. “I feel like now AG and Moug, they’ve really put me in position with all the guys we’ve brought in with all the guys we’ve brought in and the team we’re building around us to really flourish. God willing, we stay healthy and everything goes as planned, I feel like this could be my best season, for sure.”
Offseason optimism is nothing new for the Jets, but staying healthy and everything going has planned have been harder to come by over the last 15 years. If that can change this fall, Hall won’t be the only one believing in what Glenn and Mougey are cooking up.
Former NFL defensive end Mark Gastineau isn’t giving up on his effort to sue ESPN, the NFL, NFL Films, and others regarding The New York Sack Exchange documentary.
The lawsuit had been dismissed in March. Via Ben Horney of Front Office Sports, Gastineau has appealed the ruling.
Gastineau claims that his conversation with Brett Favre regarding the phantom sack that allowed Michael Strahan to break Gastineau’s single-season sack record was used without Gastineau’s consent or permission. He also argues that the clip portrayed him “in a manner which was maliciously false.” Gastineau also contends that the producers “intentionally and maliciously” omitted footage of Gastineau and Favre shaking hands.
In federal court, the appeal process commences with a simple filing regarding the losing parties’ intention to appeal. No arguments or briefs are submitted at that time.
The defendants had attacked the case by filing a motion to dismiss it. The motion was based on the argument that the lawsuit fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Which means that, even if everything alleged factually is true, there’s no legal theory that creates liability.
The federal appeals process usually takes at least a year to play out.
Jets running back Breece Hall has signed his multi-year extension, the team announced Monday.
Hall’s extension is three years and worth $43.5 million.
“We’re excited to get this deal done with Breece,” General Manager Darren Mougey said in a statement. “His impact on the field speaks for itself, and we’re excited to have him be a part of our future. This agreement reflects [owners] Woody and Christopher’s belief in our vision and continued commitment to building a team positioned for long-term success.”
The Jets traded stars Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner before the trade deadline last season, and Hall’s name was mentioned in trade talks. Instead, he signed a deal that guarantees him $29 million and with a yearly average of $14.5 million that ranks fourth in the NFL among running backs.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue my career with the Jets,” Hall said in a statement. “Through it all, this organization and our fanbase have continued to believe in me. This is where I want to be. I believe in what we’re building, and I’m appreciative of Woody, Darren, and AG [head coach Aaron Glenn] for their continued trust in me. Let’s get to work.”
The Jets made Hal a second-round pick in 2022, and he has gained 5,040 yards from scrimmage.
“I’ve said all along I wanted Breece to be here,” Glenn said in a statement. “He’s a good football player that can help us win games. He has shown the ability to consistently make plays and have real impact on the outcome of games. We’re excited to keep him here as we continue to build a team that can compete each week.”
