my-server
← Wiki

2026 NFL season

The 2026 NFL season is scheduled to be the 107th season of the National Football League (NFL). The regular season is scheduled to begin on September 9, 2026, and will end on January 10, 2027. The playoffs will begin on January 16 and conclude with Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on February 14. This will be the NFL's latest date to end the season.

Player movement

The 2026 NFL league year and trading period began on March 11. Beginning March 9, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2026 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2025 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams were required to be under the salary cap using the "top 51" definition (in which the 51 highest paid-players on the team's payroll must have a combined salary cap). On March 11, clubs were allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with players whose contracts had expired and thus became unrestricted free agents.

This season's salary cap was set to a new high of $301.2 million per team, a $22 million per team increase from the previous season.

Free agency

Free agency began on March 11. Notable players to change teams include:

Trades

The following notable trades were made during the 2026 league year:

  • March 11: Las Vegas traded QB Geno Smith and a 2026 seventh-round selection to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round selection.
  • March 11: Detroit traded RB David Montgomery to Houston in exchange for C Juice Scruggs, 2026 fourth-round and 2027 seventh-round selections.
  • March 11: Chicago traded WR D. J. Moore and a 2026 fifth-round selection to Buffalo in exchange for a 2026 second-round selection.
  • March 11: Kansas City traded CB Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for their 2026 first- (No. 29), fifth-, and sixth-round selections and a 2027 third-round selection.
  • March 11: Miami traded S Minkah Fitzpatrick to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round selection.
  • March 11: Green Bay traded DT Colby Wooden to Indianapolis in exchange for LB Zaire Franklin.
  • March 11: Green Bay traded DE Rashan Gary to Dallas in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round selection.
  • March 11: Tennessee traded DT T'Vondre Sweat to the New York Jets in exchange for DE Jermaine Johnson II.
  • March 11: Dallas traded DT Osa Odighizuwa to San Francisco in exchange for a 2026 third-round selection.
  • March 11: Buffalo traded CB Taron Johnson and a 2026 seventh-round selection to Las Vegas in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round selection.
  • March 18: Miami traded WR Jaylen Waddle and a 2026 fourth-round selection to Denver in exchange for a 2026 first-, third-, and fourth-round selections.
  • March 20: Philadelphia traded S Sydney Brown and 2026 fourth- and sixth-round selections to Atlanta for 2026 fourth- and sixth-round selections.

Retirements

Notable retirements

  • LB Lavonte David – One-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro (one first-team, two second-team), and Super Bowl LV champion. Played for Tampa Bay during his entire 14-year career.
  • WR T. Y. Hilton – Four-time Pro Bowler. Played for Indianapolis and Dallas during his 11-year career.
  • CB Xavien Howard – Four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro (one first-team, one second-team). Played for Miami and Indianapolis during his nine-year career.
  • C Ryan Kelly – Four-time Pro Bowler and one-time second-team All-Pro. Played for Indianapolis and Minnesota during his 10-year career.
  • QB Philip Rivers – Eight-time Pro Bowler and 2013 NFL Comeback Player of the Year. Played for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis during his 18-year career.
  • CB Darius Slay – Six-time Pro Bowler, one-time first-team All-Pro, and Super Bowl LIX champion. Played for Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh during his 13-year career.

Other retirements

Draft

The 2026 NFL draft is scheduled to take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 23–25, with events held at Acrisure Stadium, Point State Park, and other venues throughout the city. Las Vegas, by virtue of having the worst record in , holds the first overall selection.

The amount of time allotted for each team to make a selection in the first round will be reduced from 10 to 8 minutes beginning with the 2026 draft.

2026 deaths

Pro Football Hall of Fame members

Sonny Jurgensen
Jurgensen played 18 seasons in the NFL as a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983. He was a four-time All-Pro (two first-team, two second-team), five-time Pro Bowler, and won the 1960 NFL Championship with the Eagles. He died February 6, age 91.

Active personnel

Rondale Moore
Moore was a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings for five seasons. He died on February 21, age 25.

Rule changes

The following rule changes were adopted at the NFL Owners' Meeting on March 31, 2026:

  • The kickoff rules first introduced 2024 were modified for the second consecutive year:
  • Onside kicks will now be permitted anytime during the game. Previously, they were restricted to only be made by the trailing team in the fourth quarter.
  • If a kickoff is moved to the 50-yard line due to one or more penalties, a touchback will place the ball at the receiving team's 20-yard line instead of the 35-yard line.
  • The formation rules of the receiving team were adjusted to require five players to have their front foot on the setup line. Previously, six players were required at the setup line.
  • Expansion to the replay assist rules:
  • Replay can initiate a review about whether a player should be ejected from the game even if there was no flag thrown for it first.
  • If the league has to use replacement officials this season due to a labor dispute between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association, the NFL Officiating department would then be able to "correct clear and obvious mistakes made by on-field officials that impact the game".

Preseason

The Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers will play in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 6.

Regular season

The season is planned to be played over an 18-week schedule, beginning on September 9. Each of the league's 32 teams plays 17 games, with one bye week. The regular season is then scheduled to end on January 10, 2027; all games during the final weekend will be intra-division games, as it has been since .

Each team plays the other three teams in its own division twice, one game against each of the four teams from a division in its own conference, one game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, one game against each of the remaining two teams in its conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division would play all three other teams in its conference that also finished fourth in their divisions), and one game against a team in another division in the other conference that also finished in the same position in their respective division the previous season.

The division pairings for 2026 are as follows:

Highlights of the 2026 season are planned to include the following (with the full schedule expected to be announced in the spring of 2026):

*The first regular season game in Australia is scheduled to be held this season with San Francisco at the Los Angeles Rams on September 11 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne.
*The first regular-season game in France is also planned to be held this season with New Orleans as the designated home team at the Stade de France in Paris.
*A designated Dallas home game will be played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
*A designated Detroit home game will be played at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.
*London, United Kingdom, will again host two games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Jacksonville and Washington serving as home teams. Jacksonville will also host a game at London's Wembley Stadium.
*A designated Atlanta home game will be held at Bernabéu in Madrid, Spain.
*A designated San Francisco home game will be played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico, in December.
  • Thanksgiving: Three Thanksgiving Day games are planned to be held on November 26, with Detroit and Dallas expected to host their traditional afternoon doubleheaders, and a primetime game between opponents that have yet to be announced. Another game will be scheduled on the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving.
  • Christmas: Christmas Day, December 25, lands on a Friday. When this happened the last time in 2020, that week's Thursday Night Football was played on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve.

Flexible scheduling rules

This will be the fourth season of the league's flexible scheduling system that includes Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and increased the amount of cross-flexing (switching) of Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox.

Postseason

The 2026 playoffs are scheduled to begin with the Wild Card Round from January 16–18, 2027, with three games played in each conference. In the Divisional Round, scheduled for January 23–24, the top seed in the conference will play the lowest remaining seed and the other two remaining teams play each other. The winners of those games advance to the Conference Championship games scheduled for January 31. Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for February 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Notable events

Referee collective bargaining agreement

The collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) expires on May 31, 2026. If no agreement is reached by that date, the league will lockout its regular game officials and then use replacement referees for the first time since the 2012 NFL referee lockout. One issue under dispute is that the referees' union wants an annual salary increase of 10 percent per year for the next six years, while the league has offered just 6.45 percent. The league also wants additional performance standards such as increasing the probationary period for new officials from three to five years, and award more playoff games based on performance instead of seniority.

Head coaching and general manager changes

Head coaches

Off-season

General managers

Off-season

Stadiums

This is planned to be the first season that the Buffalo Bills will play at the new Highmark Stadium. The team had played at the previously-named Highmark Stadium (known without its naming rights sponsorship as Ralph Wilson Stadium) since 1973.

This is scheduled to be the final season in which the Tennessee Titans will play their home games at their current Nissan Stadium. The new stadium, also to be called Nissan Stadium, is scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2027 season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will play in EverBank Stadium with a reduced capacity due to commencing renovations. The upper deck will be closed, cutting the capacity to around 43,500.

Uniforms

Rivalries series

AFC South and NFC North teams are scheduled to unveil their "rivalries" uniforms in 2026. They will be worn at one home divisional game per season.

Uniform changes

  • Atlanta filed for uniform changes for the 2026 season. The team teased a uniform update in January with an April 2026 announcement date.
  • Baltimore apparently filed for jersey changes for the 2026 season. In November 2025, reports indicated that Baltimore had filed for new uniform designs for the upcoming season, suggesting that changes are in development. The team has already taken steps toward potential updates according to sources. The Ravens are expected to have a new primary look, but will have the fewest changes among the teams requesting changes to their uniforms. They are also looking at 2 new "alternate" uniforms.
  • The Los Angeles Rams will also change their uniforms and primary logo, along with a brand-new secondary insignia. Unlike Tennessee, though, the Rams will not be getting an entirely new primary logo, as their new one will be pure gold/yellow, moving away from the gradient that they've sported since the opening of SoFi Stadium in 2020. Overall, the Rams will move away from gradients entirely and incorporate more of their old-school looks heading into the 2026 season.
  • Tennessee unveiled a redesigned logo and new jerseys.
  • Washington will unveil their new uniforms on April 15. It has been reported that the uniforms will be templated after the alternate "Super Bowl Era" uniforms introduced in the previous season, a uniform in turn based on the look introduced by the franchise in 1979 and used in various forms until the rebranding to "Commanders" in 2022.

Media

National

Linear television

Under an agreement first announced on August 5, 2025, and approved by government regulators on January 31, 2026, ESPN acquired NFL Network, television distribution rights to NFL RedZone and the RedZone brand. In exchange, the league received a 10 percent equity stake in ESPN. The NFL's existing deal with ESPN remained unaffected.

This will also be the fourth year of the existing 11-year U.S. media deals with CBS, Fox, and NBC, along with its Spanish counterparts Fox Deportes, and Telemundo Deportes.

  • Sunday afternoon regional games will continue to be split between CBS and Fox, with the two networks carrying the AFC and NFC packages, respectively. When the initial schedule is created, CBS and Fox will be able to specify a limited amount of games involving teams from their respective conference that they want to air, but otherwise the league is free to schedule games regardless of conference. Each network is scheduled to produce ten Sunday doubleheaders (with games at 1:00 and 4:25 p.m. ET), and eight single games (each media market airs either a 1:00 or 4:05 p.m. ET game). During most Sundays, one network will have the doubleheader and the other network will have the single game; both networks will air doubleheaders in Weeks 15 and 18. On select Sundays, the doubleheader may include a single, nationally televised game at 4:25 p.m. ET instead of producing two or more regional telecasts. On Thanksgiving, CBS and Fox will nationally air the 1:00 pm ET Detroit game and the 4:30 pm ET Dallas game, respectively. Fox also has the option to nationally televise a Christmas Day game at its discretion.
  • NBC will continue to air Sunday Night Football games, the NFL Kickoff Game, and the primetime Thanksgiving game.
  • ESPN will continue to produce Monday Night Football games, the doubleheader on the last Saturday of the season. ABC will simulcast select MNF games and the last Saturday doubleheader; ESPN2 will feature the alternative Manningcast on select games. ESPN will also take over production of the NFL Network Exclusive Game Series. The league will no longer schedule Monday night doubleheaders. Instead, ABC will have three additional MNF simulcasts for a total of at least six, ESPN's rights to the four games lost by the removal of the MNF doubleheaders will move to NFL Network, and NFL Network's rights to four International Series games will be resold to other interested broadcasters.
  • Like in previous seasons, any additional one-year modifications or separate deals to these linear TV rights are expected to be announced with the 2026 season schedule.

Streaming

  • This will be the fifth year of a 12-year deal with Amazon Prime Video and Twitch to exclusively stream Thursday Night Football games, and the fourth season that they will also stream the game on the Friday after Thanksgiving under the title Black Friday Football.
  • ESPN DTC will simulcast all ESPN-produced games (including any alternate telecasts) and have a live stream of NFL Network. ESPN+ will no longer have an exclusive game.
  • Fox One will simulcast in market and national Fox games.
  • Paramount+ will simulcast in market and national CBS games.
  • Peacock will simulcast NBC's games. This will also be the fourth season in a six-year deal that the platform will exclusively stream one regular season game.
  • This will be the third and final year of the deal with Netflix to exclusively stream select Christmas Day games.
  • This will be the fourth year of a seven-year deal with YouTube to stream NFL Sunday Ticket, the package showing out-of-market CBS and Fox's Sunday afternoon games, either bundled with YouTube TV or as a standalone subscription on YouTube's Primetime Channels service.
  • The league will still own and operate NFL+, which will continue to live stream in-market and national preseason, regular season and postseason games on mobile devices only, radio broadcasts for all games, most out-of-market preseason games and a live stream of NFL Network on its base tier, and replays of games along with a live stream of NFL RedZone on its premium tier.
  • Like in previous seasons, any additional one-year modifications or separate deals to these streaming rights are expected to be announced with the 2026 season schedule.

Postseason

During the Wild Card round, CBS and Fox will air an AFC and NFC Wild Card game, respectively. NBC will air the Sunday night game under the sixth year of its seven-year deal. ESPN/ABC will broadcast a Wild Card game on a date to-be-determined, as its previous deal to air the Monday night Wild Card game expired after the previous postseason. NBC will air a second Wild Card game this season as part of the rotation with Fox and CBS. This will also be the third postseason under a multi-year deal that Amazon Prime Video will exclusively stream a Wild Card playoff game.

This will be the fourth season that all four broadcast television partners air one divisional playoff game per season (ESPN/ABC, Fox, CBS, and NBC).

Under the annual rotation of Super Bowl broadcasters, Super Bowl LXI will be the first time that the game will be an ESPN/ABC simulcast, the first time ABC will have aired the Super Bowl since 2005's Super Bowl XL, the first time ever that ESPN will air a live Super Bowl and the first time since the 2013 season that both the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl will be airing on the same network.

Radio

  • Westwood One has rights to air all games televised by the national partners (including streaming).
  • ESPN Radio and Sports USA Radio Network has rights to air select Sunday afternoon games on its radio networks.
  • This is the fifth and final season of the league's five-year deal with SiriusXM to simulcast all 32 teams' local regular season and postseason broadcasts, including a wraparound show called SiriusXM NFL Sunday Drive.

International

  • ESPN will air its slate of games in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the Netherlands; and through Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe.
  • In the UK and Ireland:
  • This will the second year of a three-year deal that Sky Sports will broadcast select games on either their dedicated Sky Sports NFL Channel or through their Sky Sports+ channels.
  • This will the second year of a multi-year deal that the free-to-air Channel 5 will broadcast games through their main channel as well as 5Action.
  • This will be the fourth year of a ten-year deal that DAZN will distribute NFL Game Pass International.

Notes

References