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.
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.
Four quarterbacks will be featured on the third season of the Netflix series Quarterback.
The streaming service announced on Wednesday that Cam Ward, Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, and Joe Flacco will be featured on this edition of the show. The show will chronicle the quarterbacks’ experiences during the 2025 season and will premiere on July 14.
Each quarterback’s storyline should have some interesting moments. Ward went through his rookie season with the Titans after being selected with the first pick of the draft while Daniels’s much-anticipated second season with the Commanders was wiped out by injuries. Mayfield thrived early in the year, but he and the Buccaneers struggled later in a year that ended without a playoff berth. Flacco opened the season as the starter for the Browns, but was traded to the Bengals to fill in for the injured Joe Burrow.
Burrow Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes, and Marcus Mariota were featured on the first two seasons of the show.
Before 2011, first-round draft picks rarely agreed to terms on their rookie deals before the Fourth of July. Nowadays, plenty of them sign before Memorial Day.
On Friday, Titans receiver Carnell Tate, the fourth overall pick in the 2026 draft, agreed to terms on his slotted four-year deal.
Like all first-round picks, it’s fully guaranteed.
The contract pays out $51,134,914, with a $33,649,028 signing bonus.
The value of the first-round deals is driven by the spot in which the player was drafted. There’s not much to negotiate. Which has resulted in more and more rookie deals being negotiated quickly.
Tate’s deal put the second (Jets edge rusher David Bailey), third (Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love) and fourth (Tate) picks under contract. Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the first overall pick, has not yet signed.
The Titans were awarded wide receiver Courtney Jackson off waivers on Friday.
The Giants waived Jackson on Thursday after he signed a futures contract with the team earlier this offseason.
Jackson spent last season on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
The Broncos signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2025.
Jackson has never played a regular-season NFL game.
The Titans also announced they waived receiver Hal Presley in a corresponding move.
