When 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan aired grievances at the annual NFL meetings in March about his team getting the short straw for a long trip to Australia to face the Rams — at (as Shanahan insists) the specific request of the Rams — Shanahan held out hope for a nugget of consideration when the 49ers return to the United States.
Shanahan wanted his team’s Week 2 game to happen on Monday night.
That isn’t happening for the 49ers. Instead, the Rams will get the extra day to adjust and recover after playing in Australia. They host the Giants on Monday night, September 21.
Only one of the two Australia teams could have gotten the extra day. Still, some will wonder whether Shanahan’s public gripes prompted a little twist of the knife by the league office. At times, the powers-that-be can have a very long memory — and they sometimes don’t react well to public complaints.
To his credit, Shanahan wasn’t bashful about speaking his truth. And if he thinks the decision to give the Rams and not the 49ers the extra day to get ready for Week 2 traces to his willingness to say when he thinks, Shanahan should say that, too.
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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.
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 49ers signed linebacker Larry Worth III to a three-year deal on Monday, the team announced.
In a corresponding move, the 49ers released linebacker Milo Eifler.
Worth participated in the team’s rookie minicamp on a tryout basis after going undrafted.
He began his college career as a walk-on, earned a scholarship and finished his career in SEC. Worth appeared in 47 games, with 21 starts, over four seasons at Jacksonville State (2022-23) and Arkansas (2024-25). Worth registered 201 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, six passes defensed, three forced fumbles and one interception in his career.
In 2025 at Arkansas, he appeared in 12 games, with 11 starts, and recorded 64 tackles and one pass defensed.
Eifler signed a futures contract with the team on Jan. 7.
The 49ers have started signing their 2026 draft picks.
Six of their eight selections are now under contract, including second-rounder De’Zhaun Stribling. The 49ers picked Stribling at the top of the second round after trading out of the first round on the opening night in Pittsburgh.
They also signed third-round running back Kaelon Black, fourth-round offensive lineman Carver Willis, fourth-round cornerback Ephesians Prysock, fifth-round linebacker Jaden Dugger, and fifth-round offensive lineman Enrique Cruz. Third-round defensive end Romello Height and fourth-round defensive tackle Gracen Halton remain unsigned.
The 49ers also announced deals with seven undrafted free agents. They signed Penn State tight end Khalil Dinkins, Tennessee defensive lineman Bryson Eason, North Carolina State wide receiver Wesley Grimes, Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara, Notre Dame wide receiver Will Pauling, Notre Dame safety Jalen Stroman, and Illinois defensive lineman James Thompson.
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 Vikings have had a need for another established receiver since Jalen Nailor signed with the Raiders early in free agency. They’ve finally addressed it.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Vikings and receiver Jauan Jennings have agreed to terms on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly worth “up to” $13 million. Which doesn’t shed much light on the true value of the deal. The reported figure is the maximum amount he can earn; without knowing the base value and the triggers for any incentives, it’s impossible to assess the deal.
Jennings became a free agent two years ago, on the heels of a solid performance in Super Bowl LVIII. He re-signed with the 49ers on a fairly modest deal. After generating 975 yards in 2024, he sought a raise. Ultimately, the 49ers added $3 million in incentives.
With the window for compensatory-draft pick consideration closing last week, the move won’t count toward San Francisco’s or Minnesota’s ultimate haul of extra selections.
A seventh-round pick in 2020, Jennings had spent six seasons with the 49ers. He had 643 receiving yards in 2025. He visited the Vikings last week.
In Minnesota, Jennings joins a depth chart led by Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Jennings was the highest remaining available free agent on the PFT list, at No. 23.
The 49ers used the 90th overall pick on Indiana running back Kaelon Black, drawing criticism from draft analysts who labeled his third-round selection a reach.
Both General Manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan have defended when Black was selected.
“That’s just our evaluation of him,” Shanahan said recently. “Right or wrong, that’s our evaluation.”
Black is embracing the scrutiny, using it as motivation for his rookie season.
“It makes me want to go harder,” Black told Chase Senior of Chat Sports, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I’ve got to prove my coach right. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen the backlash that [Shanahan] has been getting for the pick, but we just stay the course. We stay focused, and we’re going to keep moving and try to prove him right.”
Black rushed for 251 yards for Indiana in 2024 before becoming one of the Hoosiers’ two 1,000-yard backs in 2025, finishing the season with 1,040 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 36 yards.
The Commanders are hiring 49ers scout Ryan Kessenich as their new director of college scouting, Neil Stratton of ScoutSpeak reports.
Kessenich is returning to Washington, where he began his scouting career in 2005.
His stint in San Francisco began in 2019, where he and Adam Peters worked together before Peters left to become the Commanders’ General Manager in 2024. Kessenich also worked as a scout for the Chiefs and the Bears and had two stops at Northwestern University, along with one year as a scout for the Senior Bowl, before joining the 49ers.
Kessenich will replace Tim Gribble, who left in January to join the Steelers.
