IT’S NFL WEDNESDAY! (Damn, that sounds wrong.)
And thanks to our partners at Fantasy Genius, here is a special NFL Preview Edition of Sports! The Newsletter!
The 2026 NFL season begins tonight when the Patriots play the Seahawks in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. It’s on a Wednesday because they’re playing a Rams-Seahawks game in Australia on Thursday, and because — ahhhh, let’s be real, there’s no actual reason for it, the NFL just wants to put as many games in as many different TV windows as possible because they know we’ll watch them all.
If you’ve completed your fantasy football draft, you can get access to a special free Draft Recap written by me at Fantasy Genius! (And if you haven’t completed your fantasy football draft … hurry up! The season is starting! I can’t tell you who’s going to win your league, but I CAN tell you which team in your league is building the best culture, which team is most likely to be ravaged by electromagnetic waves, and which team has the best championship pedigree. We’ll have more facts and stats from Fantasy Genius all season long.
We’ll be back on Friday with our usual weekly sports roundup. Enjoy kickoff!
– Rodger Sherman
Today’s Lineup
I can’t wait to watch the Rams wreck opposing quarterbacks
More football in weird times and places than ever before!
We’re getting a rare Super Bowl rematch to open the season
🎥 An NFL Superteam 🎥
We’re used to seeing Hall of Famers pair up on NBA teams; all it takes is a couple of free agency signings and some salary cap math. But because NFL trades are unwieldy and players only have a few brutish, short seasons to play, most stars spend their entire careers with the teams that drafted them.
But this offseason, the Los Angeles Rams built the closest thing the NFL has ever seen to a superteam. After coming a few yards away from making the Super Bowl last season, they traded for Myles Garrett and brought Aaron Donald out of retirement, putting the two best defensive players of the last decade on the same line. Throw in quarterback Matt Stafford, and they’re now the first team in NFL history to have the reigning MVP and reigning Defensive Player of the Year on the same roster. (Unless you count the year Lawrence Taylor won both with the Giants.)
I’m fascinated by the Rams — not just because I think they’ll be the best team in the NFL in 2026, but because I want to see what a football team with this much talent looks like. By pairing two of the most unstoppable forces in football history, they’ve created a very violent math problem.
The Rams were extremely good last year. They led the league in points, traditionally one of the best things you can do in any sport. They were the 9th-best team of all time, per Football Outsiders’ DVOA.
The Seahawks won the Super Bowl by a lot. But the Rams were basically exactly as good as the Seahawks. In November, they beat the Seahawks 21-19; in December, they lost 38-37 in overtime.
The Seahawks forced OT because running back Zach Charbonnet picked up a forgotten ball in the end zone after everybody else assumed the play was over, in what was perhaps the most consequential accident in NFL history. The win gave the Seahawks homefield advantage in the NFC Championship game, which they won 31-27 after stopping the Rams on the 6-yard line with five minutes remaining.
Over the course of three games, the Seahawks were exactly three points better than the Rams — about as even as you could ask.
The Rams took a team that was already nearly the best in the league and made the most dramatic upgrades of the NFL offseason. In June, they traded for Myles Garrett, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who set the NFL’s sack record last year on the 5-12 Cleveland Browns.
That record may be one of the most remarkable feats in NFL history. Teams rarely passed against the Browns: they faced 487 passing attempts, the third-fewest in the league. You need the opposing team to pass the ball to record sacks! And teams often often went all-out to keep Garrett from the quarterback, since he was clearly the Browns’ best player.
How many sacks will Garrett be able to get on the team with the best offense in football, against opponents who are going to need to throw the ball to come back and win games, rushing alongside players who can’t be ignored like his Browns teammates?
In August, the Rams signed un-retiring franchise legend Aaron Donald, who has a strong case as one of the greatest football players ever. He’s three-time DPOY who personally bullied every quarterback the Rams faced en route to their 2021 Super Bowl title. Donald had been out of the league since 2023, but he was still in his prime when he stepped away, and worked out so hard during his retirement that active players who joined him often had to tap out.
(Remember when he pointed at his ring finger after wrecking the Bengals’ final drive in that Super Bowl? It was the #2 all-time ring finger-related move, behind the “Single Ladies” video.)
Combined, Donald and Garrett have five Defensive Player of the Year trophies, by far the most combined by two teammates. Per CBS, they’re the first pair of 100-sack teammates since 1999 (Derrick Thomas and Leslie O'Neal on the Chiefs) and the first pair of defensive line teammates with five All-Pro honors each since 1978 (Alan Page and Carl Eller on the “Purple People-Eaters” Vikings defense.)
The Donald-Garrett pairing isn’t just about the awards they’ve racked up: I fundamentally don’t understand how offenses will block these two players at the same time. Garrett led the NFL in pressures while being double teamed or chipped in 2025. He’s now paired with Donald, who led the NFL in pressures while double teamed by a massive margin during the final years before his first retirement.
They’re the two guys that everybody has universally acknowledged require additional resources to stop. And often, those additional resources have proven ineffective. I have no idea what chaos is possible when you put them both together.
And let’s not forget: The Rams defense has other good football players. Kobie Turner has the most QB pressures while being double teamed since 2023. THAT’S ANOTHER GUY WHO USUALLY GETS DOUBLE TEAMED. Teams are going to have to block him one-on-one now.
And Byron Young had 12 sacks last year. And the Rams also traded for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie this offseason.
I’ve figured out how you attack this: You double team Donald with two interior offensive linemen. You have a tight end and offensive tackle team up to block Garrett. Blocking Turner, Young, and defensive tackle Poona Ford with one man each isn’t ideal, but it’ll have to do. You should leave a running back in pass pro, for the inevitable moment when one of those blocking assignments busts. This leaves you with two passing targets to get downfield and beat the remaining six Rams. Any NFL coaches interested in this strategy, get in touch.
And don’t forget: The Rams’ offense was the best in the NFL last year! They had the league leaders in receiving yards per game (Puka Nacua) and receiving touchdowns (Davante Adams.) They led the NFL in points and yards per play.
And head coach Sean McVay developed an offensive strategy around utilizing multiple tight ends that was so effective that the entire league and many college football teams are now trying to copy it.
(To be fair, I think Sean McVay could pretty much debut any strategy and 15 teams would copy him, even if it was stupid. He should do this every once in a while just to waste everybody’s resources.)
The Rams seem to have a pattern: Every few years, they get to host the Super Bowl in their home venue, SoFi Stadium, the most expensive stadium ever built in one of America’s signature cities. When this happens, they make a trade to win the Super Bowl. In 2021, they traded for Matt Stafford and became the second team ever to win the Super Bowl in their home stadium, just a year after the Buccaneers did it in 2020.
This year, they’re hosting again, and they built the Sack Avengers.
It’s an all-in season. Stafford is 38, and has dealt with injuries throughout his career. Donald was literally just retired and will likely go back to being retired after this year; he’s playing this season on a one-year contract.
Which makes it all the more baffling that the Rams used their first-round pick in this year’s draft on a backup quarterback, Ty Simpson. The Rams rarely use first-round draft picks (they didn’t use any between 2017 and 2023.) It makes sense that they used one this year, since 2026 is a hugely important season for them, but why use it on a player who likely won’t see the field? A player at any other position could have contributed to a Rams championship run.
Anyway, my official 2026 NFL season prediction: Matt Stafford’s back injury acts up in January. Rams win Super Bowl LXI 14-3. Ty Simpson named MVP after 180-yard, one-TD, zero-INT performance. BOOK IT!
Correction: This post initially said the Rams finished #1 in DVOA in 2025 (they were #2) and that they were the first team to win the Super Bowl in their own stadium (they were #2.) So, uh. I guess don’t be surprised if my prediction that they will finish #1 in the NFL turns out to be wrong, and they end up #2.
Sponsored by Fantasy Genius
Fantasy Genius Stat of the Week
Who’s going to break out in fantasy football this year? Buddy, I don’t know. If I knew I would tell you. I promise.
BUT!
I asked our partners at Fantasy Genius to dig into the data and find the players selected most frequently in 2026 drafts by teams that won their leagues in 2025.
#1?
Surprisingly, Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks, who was selected by 10.4 percent of 2025 league champions. Brooks, a 2024 second round draft pick out of Texas, has sat almost his entire career after re-tearing his ACL in the third game of his rookie season. He’s looking to take over the starting role in Carolina, and the fantasy geniuses who won their leagues last year clearly think he’s got a shot.
Here’s the Top 15 players selected by last year’s league-winners, in order, per Fantasy Genius.
Jonathon Brooks
Trevor Lawrence
Kenneth Walker
Brock Bowers
De'Von Achane
Parker Washington
Travis Etienne
Luther Burden
Bhayshul Tuten
Garrett Wilson
Omarion Hampton
Christian Watson
Justin Jefferson
Kenny Gainwell
Colston Loveland
No predictions … these are just the players who were targeted by the fantasy managers who were smart enough to take home the trophy last year. If you see a handful of these guys on your team, congrats: You’re savvy!
Fantasy Genius also produced a list of players picked most frequently by teams that finished last in fantasy leagues last year.
#1?
Niners running back Christian McCaffrey, selected by 10.5 percent of last year’s last-place finishers. Lots of stupid losers saw that famous guy’s name pop up on the draft screen and wanted in. #2? His fellow 49er, Mike Evans. You can’t spell “sacko” without San Francisco.
Here’s the Top 15 players selected by last year’s last-place finishers, in order, per Fantasy Genius.
Christian McCaffrey
Mike Evans
Sam LaPorta
DK Metcalf
Rachaad White
Caleb Williams
Quinshon Judkins
Chris Godwin
Omarion Hampton
Tucker Kraft
Rome Odunze
Bucky Irving
Jaxson Dart
Jake Ferguson
Saquon Barkley
Again, no predictions … but these are the guys the dullards and dumb-dumbs saw and selected. If your roster contains these players, I’m sorry, but you have the same low-IQ instincts as America’s Fantasy Idiots.
These are the types of stats you can expect from Fantasy Genius, the must-have tool to unlock the stats and stories behind your league. Here are some other fun ones I found for my league.
If you’ve been in the same league with the same crew for a decade … if you’ve spent hours writing fantasy recaps for your friends to read … if you’ve ever clicked around your league’s history pages for hours to find out who has the best historical win percentage … Fantasy Genius is made you.
Trust me: I’m in a league like that! I’ve written those recaps! And I’ve spent those hours clicking! And it’s all much easier with Fantasy Genius.
For as low as $3.99 per month, you can get access for your whole league. Pretty cheap if you split it between 12 league members! And even cheaper if you use promo code RODGER to get 20 percent off!
🆕 What’s New in 2026? 🆕
What’s different about the 2026 NFL season? Some notable changes:
🦘🥖 The NFL is playing for the first time in Australia and France 🦘🥖
There will be a record nine international games in seven countries this season. The league is playing its now-typical games in the UK and Germany, heading back to Mexico after a four-year hiatus, playing in Brazil for a third-straight year, playing in Spain for a second, and heading to a pair of new lands: Australia and France.
Honestly, good calls. France has always been one of the more football-friendly countries in Europe. (Having written a lot about overseas football, I would’ve gone there before Spain.) And Australia loves the NFL, but hasn’t received a game yet due to the difficult logistics of playing on the opposite side of the globe. The game in the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground could be one of the most-attended NFL games ever.
🦃 The NFL invented “Thanksgiving Eve” as a concept 🦃
NFL games will be played in more time slots than ever. In addition to games every Monday night, Thursday night, and all day Sunday — as well as the nine international games in standalone time slots, the longstanding Thanksgiving games, and the relatively new games on Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Black Friday — there will be an NFL game this year on “Thanksgiving Eve” between the Packers and the Rams.
I had never heard anybody use the phrase “Thanksgiving Eve” before the ESPN article reporting that the NFL was considering playing on Thanksgiving Eve. The only term I had ever used to describe the night before Thanksgiving was “Blackout Wednesday” — the night people go back to their hometowns and get blackout drunk with their high school friends — but I understand why the NFL didn’t call it the Blackout Wednesday Game.
🎤🍻 No More Romo 🎤🍻
CBS is shaking up its lead broadcast team, replacing Tony Romo with J.J. Watt for many of the most-watched games of the year. CBS placed Romo on leave after he was arrested for drunk driving on his way home from the Wisconsin amateur golf championship. (Man, being a cop on DUI duty outside the Wisconsin amateur golf championship has to be like shooting fish in a barrel.)
Reading between the lines … CBS is using Romo’s arrest as an opportunity to get rid of Romo after giving him the largest contract in sports broadcasting history in 2020, paying him $18 million a year. Romo was widely praised for his analysis when he began working at CBS in 2017, but the quality of his work dropped off dramatically after he signed his big contract. His signature skill was accurately predicting what offenses were going to do on high-leverage plays; he stopped doing that and started yelling AUOOGHHHOHHHH I DON’T KNOW HERE JIM multiple times a game. It’s sort of a “Florida firing Jim McElwain for making false reports of death threats shortly after he lost by 35 to Georgia” situation.
🦬🦬 The Bills have a new stadium 🦬🦬
After more than 50 years at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Bills are moving to the new, $1.7 billion Highmark Stadium across the street.
Highmark is the smallest stadium in the league at just 60,000 seats. It is also the most expensive stadium in the league for fans thanks to the demand for those relatively few seats, even though Buffalo is decidedly not the most expensive city in America. There have also already been complaints about the field, which will have to be replaced before the first game is even played.
But thankfully, the stadium doesn’t have a roof. Come January, you’ll still be able to watch Josh Allen stampeding through 18 inches of snow.
📋🎧 Ten teams have new head coaches 📋🎧
Thirty-one percent of the league decided to change coaches this offseason, and 21 of 32 teams have new offensive coordinators.
That might make you think that we’re about to see a bunch of new ideas and strategies … but no, not really. A lot of teams are just doubling down on the Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay coaching trees. Of the 10 new coaches hired this year, four are former Shanahan-McVay assistants: the Cardinals hired McVay’s OC Mike LaFleur, the Titans hired Shanahan’s DC Robert Saleh, the Raiders hired former 49ers pass-game coordinator Klint Kubiak, and the Dolphins hired former Niners assistant Jeff Hafley.
That means 11 of the NFL’s 32 head coaches are either McVay, Shanahan, or coaches who have worked under McVay or Shanahan (McVay, Shanahan, Saleh, Kubiak, Hafley, LaFleur, his brother Matt LaFleur, DeMeco Ryans, Zac Taylor, Kevin O’Connell, and Liam Coen.) An additional three teams have offensive coordinators who used to be McVay-Shanahan assistants. And if we start getting into the extended tree (like Eagles new OC Sean Mannion, who used to coach under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay) we can get up to half the league.
🇺🇸 Patriots 🇺🇸 at 🌊 Seahawks 🌊
Wednesday night, 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock)
A rematch of the Super Bowl! It’s just the third time in NFL history that the previous year’s Super Bowl teams are playing in the season opener. It happened once in 1970 sorta by accident, and once in 2016 when it wasn’t really a true rematch because Peyton Manning had retired. (Tough going from Peyton Manning to Trevor Siemian.)
Regular season Super Bowl rematches used to be uncommon … until the NFL added a 17th game in 2021. Since, we’ve gotten one in each of the last four seasons.
Teams only used to play four opponents from the other conference every year, going division-by-division in a four-year rotation (you’d play the AFC East one year, the AFC South the next, etc.) There was only a 25 percent chance the Super Bowl winners would play each other.
But the 17th game was set up so that teams matched up against a team in the other conference that finished the previous season with the same rank in their division. So this year, the NFC West-winning Seahawks got matched up against the AFC East-winning Patriots.
And who wouldn’t want to relive that game when Seattle wrung the life out of New England for three quarters before allowing some pity points in the fourth? (Can they get Bad Bunny to do the halftime show again? That’s kinda the main thing I remember from that game.)
🐏 Rams 🐏 vs. ⛏️ 49ers ⛏️
Thursday night, 8:30 p.m. ET in Melbourne, Australia (Netflix)
OK, I need you to forget all that stuff I wrote about Aaron Donald for one game. He didn’t make the flight to Australia as he works back into playing shape.
I’m fascinated by the differences in Jet Lag Strategy as these two teams prepared to play in Australia. The 49ers decided to fly to Australia a week ahead of time to adjust to jet lag, while the Rams literally flew down today for tomorrow’s game to hopefully prevent the jet lag process from even starting.
I think the Rams are doing it right. It worked fine last year when the Rams landed in London the day before a game, and I think the Niners are putting themselves at a disadvantage for an extended run to start the season as their bodies re-adjust from Australian time. Meanwhile, the Rams will never be on Aussie time to begin with. (That said, the 49ers have gotten to spend the week doing fun stuff around Australia while the Rams have not … so who’s the real winner?)
Also, I truly do not like saying “I told you so” about injuries, but 49ers defensive tackle Alfred Collins suffered a season-ending injury in practice in Australia. It’s got nothing to do with the substation!
