Once again, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Week 1 of the new NFL season kicks off with defending champions Seattle hosting a rare Wednesday night game against the other Super Bowl participant, the Patriots. The Thursday night game will feature the Niners meeting the Rams in, uh, Melbourne, Australia. Notable early games on Sunday include the Bucs at Cincy, Ravens at Indy, and, in perhaps the best game of the weekend, Buffalo at Houston. Green Bay travels to Minnesota in a late game, and the Giants are hosting Dallas on Sunday night. The Monday night game is at Arrowhead, where the Broncos visit the Chiefs.
Here are this week’s lines. All spreads taken from DraftKings on Monday the 7th at 12:30 pm CT.
Wednesday night:
Patriots @ Seahawks (-3.5)
Thursday night:
49ers @ Rams (-3.5) Game played in Melbourne, Australia
Patriots and CB Christian Gonzalez (finally) reach an agreement, making him the highest paid NFL CB.
The New England Patriots and star cornerback Christian Gonzalez agreed to terms on a record-setting four-year, $135 million extension, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler late Monday night.
The deal includes $102 million guaranteed, sources said. Gonzalez received a $33 million signing bonus, the highest ever at the cornerback position, sources told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
This contract negotiation had been looming over Patriots training camp and things were getting strained, so good news for Pats fans for getting this deal done. Now we just have to hope he’s doesn’t blow his knee out week 1.
Going on what I’m hearing from 49ers beat writers and videos of 49ers players in Melbourne, it will be a sea of red.
Who knows if the decision to fly out a week early is better for passing the game, but it seems like we’re making a new generation of fans (to go along with the 80s Montana era fans).
My Phins are supposed to suck this year, but I’m stupidly optimistic that we surprise some people. The defense is very young, and therefore unproven, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad. On offense, we have the same situation with the receivers. I suspect they have talent, and the offensive line does as well. Here’s hoping that Malik Willis is a good quarterback.
If they are going to play above expectations, I’d think that it would include a win for Week 1. The Raiders aren’t a good team.
I realize this isn’t a marquee matchup, but I’m keen on seeing just how good or bad Miami really is.
I dunno. The Raiders had a terrible offense last year but an average defense. Good experience for the Miami defense but could still be challenging for a new offense.
I’ve no doubt Miami will pull off a few wins if only because going winless is also difficult but the real issue is, based on 2025 records and despite playing the Raiders and the Jets (twice!) and the Colts, they’ve got the 2nd hardest schedule in the league, basically running a gauntlet of playoff teams.
That’s not a great way to see what a young team really has but is a great way to pile up injuries and bake in bad habits.
If you include the practice squad, it’s not uncommon. But having 4 on the active roster used to be more rare. And even then, usually to play some roster games as other players went through waivers.
From that link, apparently there are currently not just 1 team but 4 teams with 4 QBs on their active 53 man rosters; Philadelphia, Minnesota, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh. I guess I’m just getting too old for these new fangled football trends
It doesn’t se em that surprising to me for Minnesota and Atlanta, who have significant question marks at QB. And Pittsburgh has obvious starter Rodgers, but basically nothing behind that. Philly is the really surprising team to be carrying 4. Gotta wonder what that’s about.
I’m waiting for a shoe to drop and one of these teams claim a player off waivers and drop one of the QBs. But maybe they are all planning on taking 4 QBs into the season.
It’s still surprising to me. The old maxim used to be, if you have 2 QBs, you have no QBs. If you have significant question marks at QB, like Minnesota or Atlanta, keep 2 or max 3 QBs, see if there is any promise among those and otherwise, trade or get somebody new from the draft the next season.
It’s hard enough to give a #3 QB enough practice or live game experience to tell if he has any chance of developing, even as a backup, much less for a #4.
Then again, maybe all those QBs are beat up to some extent and they’re stocking up on fresh bodies in advance.
