The Seahawks will open the season on Wednesday, Sept. 9, rather than on the first Thursday of the season as is usual, Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal reports.
It has been known for more than a month that the Super Bowl LX champions might start on Wednesday, with the NFL also playing a Week 1 game in Australia. The Rams and 49ers will play in Melbourne to open the season. The Seahawks’ opponent is not yet known, with the NFL to release the schedule in May.
But it was uncertain which game would take place on which day.
The Seahawks’ game, which NBC will televise at 8:20 p.m. ET, will mark only the second time in 75 years that the NFL has opened its season with a Wednesday game. The Cowboys and Giants played on a Wednesday in 2012 to avoid a conflict with Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The Wednesday night game will create a conflict in Seattle, with the Mariners and Sounders also scheduled to play that night. The Major League Baseball team and the Major League Soccer are expected to reschedule their games.
The Seahawks will play the Cardinals, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Chiefs, Chargers or Patriots in the season opener.
The NFL is unable to play a game on Friday in Week 1 this season. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL is banned from televising games on Friday night or Saturday from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December. The way Labor Day fell in 2024 and 2025, the league was able to play games on the Friday of opening weekend.
The Lions hosted offensive lineman Ben Bartch on a free agent visit on Monday.
Bartch, 27, spent the past two-plus seasons with the 49ers, where he started at left guard for four games.
He has 26 career starts, with 15 at left guard and 11 at right guard.
The Jaguars made Bartch a fourth-round pick in 2020, making him the highest-drafted player in Saint John’s (Minnesota) history.
He spent three-plus seasons in Jacksonville before the 49ers signed him off the Jaguars’ practice squad in 2023.
Bartch appeared in 41 games with 20 starts for the Jaguars, including 11 starts at right guard in 2021.
The 49ers have made another addition to their wide receiver corps.
Christian Kirk has agreed to a contract with San Francisco, according to Jordan Schultz.
The 49ers will be Kirk’s fourth NFL team. He was originally a 2018 second-round pick of the Cardinals and played in Arizona for four years, then Jacksonville for three years before getting traded to Houston last year.
The 29-year-old Kirk had his best season in 2022, when he had career-highs with 84 catches for 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns, but his production has steadily declined since then. Last year Kirk caught 28 passes for 297 yards and one touchdown in 13 games for the Texans.
Kirk joins fellow Texas A&M alum Mike Evans as new free agent additions at wide receiver in San Francisco.
The Chargers are meeting with a potential addition to their offensive line to kick off the second week of free agency.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that guard Spencer Burford arrived for a visit with the team on Sunday night. It’s the first reported visit for Burford since the start of the new league year.
Burford was a 2022 49ers fourth-round pick and he started 29 games over his first two seasons. Burford was a reserve in all of his 2024 appearances, but returned to make 11 starts — including both 49ers playoff games — in 2025.
The Chargers released guard Mekhi Becton earlier this month and center Bradley Bozeman retired, but they have signed center Tyler Biadasz and guard Cole Strange to bolster their line in recent days.
The first big wave of free agency has ended. The second wave has, too.
As the dollars settle on last week’s spending spree, plenty of big names are still on the board.
Receiver Stefon Diggs had a very good year in his first season back from a torn ACL, notching his seventh 1,000-yard season. The Patriots opted not to continue his contract, which added him to the group of available players. He remains on the market.
So does receiver Jauan Jennings, who landed at No. 23 on the PFT Top 100 list of free agents. He failed to parlay an unexpectedly productive 2024 into an extension with the 49ers. The fact that he didn’t sign quickly after free agency opened suggests that he wanted more than the market will bear.
Receiver Deebo Samuel, No. 29 on the PFT list, also waits for his next team. There was no land rush for a player whose lone Pro Bowl and All-Pro season is now five years in the rear-view mirror. He hit free agency for the first time. He remains available.
Other receivers who are free and clear include Tyreek Hill (who’s recovering from a serious knee injury), Christian Kirk, DeAndre Hopkins, and Keenan Allen.
As running backs go, the best options are gone. Veterans who are available include Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Brian Robinson, A.J. Dillon, Raheem Mostert, Najee Harris, and Austin Ekeler.
Edge rusher Joey Bosa, who’s No. 35, was essentially replaced in Buffalo by Bradley Chubb. Bosa is waiting for his next stop; his mother apparently envisions the Bosa brothers teaming up in San Francisco.
Other big-name defenders remain. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner is unsigned. As is edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, the first overall pick in the 2014 draft. Veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan is a free agent. Linebacker Lavonte David, a fixture in Tampa Bay since 2012, is unsigned, too.
Then there are the quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Flacco, and Tyrod Taylor are the headliners. Currently, only the Cardinals and Steelers are presumably in the market for a QB1.
More signings will surely happen. But, for the most part, the big-money pipeline has sealed shut. The budgets have been busted. Quickly, the spending spree ends and the pre-draft process resumes.
