The 2026 NFL season kicks off in style this week with a Super Bowl rematch on opening night before two rivals who can afford to harbour serious hopes of contending for the title do battle Down Under.
Just over seven months on from their blowout win over the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Super Bowl 60, the Seattle Seahawks will raise their championship banner and face the same opposition at Lumen Field to get the season off and running.
Twenty-four hours later, two teams the Seahawks defeated in the playoffs en route to Super Bowl glory will meet in the first NFL regular-season game to be held in Australia.
The Los Angeles Rams are technically the home team as they face the San Francisco 49ers at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Both those teams will be aiming to dethrone the Seahawks in the NFC West as they seek to emulate their division rivals by lifting the Lombardi Trophy.
Seattle, the Rams and the Niners are likely to each play defining roles in the coming campaign, and here we look at the storylines that are set to shape the story of the NFL in 2026.
Will Rams’ ‘super team’ team live up to the billing?
The Rams’ response to falling short against the Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game has been emphatic, with a string of high-profile offseason moves resulting in them unsurprisingly being installed as Super Bowl favourites.
Los Angeles’ acquisition of two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett in a trade with the Cleveland Browns, which came after an astute trade for Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie, sent shockwaves around the rest of the league.
But even more devastating news for opposing quarterbacks came when three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald elected to come out of retirement last month, giving the Rams one of the most fearsome pass-rushing duos in NFL history.
Those moves should put the Rams’ defense in a much better position to go toe-to-toe with the Seahawks, while the offense will likely again be one of the best in the game in what could be the last season for MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Dubbed a ‘super team’ following the return of Donald, the Rams are tasked with living up to a remarkable amount of hype. The route to the Super Bowl in the NFC will be heavily influenced by how they rise to that challenge.
Can Mahomes bounce back?
While last season’s Super Bowl was not a game to live long in the memory for those outside of Seattle, it was still a remarkable game in that it was the first season-ending showpiece since the 2021 season not to feature Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The pre-eminent force in the NFL since Mahomes’ first MVP season in 2018, the Chiefs saw their dominance of the AFC halted abruptly last season. Their streak of seven straight AFC Championship Game appearances was ended as Kansas City missed the playoffs, slumping to a 6-11 finish as Mahomes suffered torn knee ligaments in December.
Mahomes is on track to be ready for Week 1 but, with an offense that has been stuck in neutral for several seasons light on difference-makers with Travis Kelce well past his best approaching what could be his final year, the big question is whether the Kansas City quarterback can perform at a level to elevate the attack. If the answer is no, then the Chiefs may struggle again in a tough AFC West.
Will the Patriots escape a Super Bowl hangover?
For reasons that had little to do with football, the Patriots perhaps had the strangest offseason of any NFL team.
But with the scrutiny on their head coach’s off-the-field conduct in the rear-view mirror for now, they will be hoping to prove last season’s run to the Super Bowl was not merely a product of a soft schedule.
Recent history for the previous two Super Bowl losers does not bode well for the Patriots, with the 49ers and Chiefs enduring miserable seasons following their respective defeats.
But the Patriots have put a lot effort into putting quarterback Drake Maye in a position to build on his MVP-calibre 2025 with investment in weapons at the skill positions and in an offensive line that crumbled against the Seahawks.
Returning most of a defense that was a top-half unit last season, the Pats have the ingredients to go deep in the AFC again. How successful they are in doing so will depend on the strides Maye takes throwing to A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs.
Are the Seahawks equipped for another run?
The defending champions have flown somewhat under the radar because of the acquisitions of the Rams.
But with a deep defensive line, excellent play at linebacker and a secondary perfectly suited to Mike Macdonald’s complex scheme, the Seahawks still boast a fearsome defense and, on the other side of the ball, arguably the NFL’s best wide receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
There have been departures, perhaps most notably that of former offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, whose familiarity with Sam Darnold from their time with the 49ers was crucial to the quarterback’s success in his first year with the Seahawks.
Kubiak is now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Darnold will be without Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker after he departed in free agency for the Chiefs. Rookie first-round pick Jadarian Price is primed to take the bulk of the carries with Zach Charbonnet starting the year on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
The Seattle defense gives the Seahawks an excellent platform for success. How far they go in attempting to hold on to their title may hinge on Darnold’s ability to mesh with new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury.
Can 49ers’ McCaffrey avoid the cliff?
As the Seahawks put their running game in the hands of a rookie, the 49ers’ offense will continue to go as future Hall of Famer Christian McCaffrey does.
The 2023 Offensive Player of the Year and last season’s Comeback Player of the Year turned 30 this June, reaching the age that typically brings decline for players at the running back position.
But McCaffrey remains the undisputed lead runner in the backfield, and is imperative to the 49er offense with his abilities as a receiver out of the backfield and lined up in the formation. A dual-threat cheat code for San Francisco, the 49ers’ reliance on him to stay healthy is reflective of their overall approach on offense.
Indeed, while the 49ers invested their top draft pick in wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, their offense and team as a whole is primarily dependent on ageing superstars with checkered injury histories. Tight end George Kittle will start Week 1 eight months removed from an Achilles tear, and future Hall of Famer Mike Evans was signed in free agency to be the top wideout despite the 33-year-old missing nine games last season through injury.
The entire offense could come crashing down if 38-year-old left tackle Trent Williams gets hurt, and the defense is hugely dependent on the play of defensive end Nick Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner, both of whom are coming off injuries that ended their 2025 season prematurely.
San Francisco’s fortunes are in no insignificant part tied to McCaffrey’s ability to avoid being the latest running back to fall off the cliff at age 30, but much more needs to go right in terms of injury luck with their stars for the Niners to truly challenge the Rams and Seahawks for supremacy in the NFC.
Is this finally the Bills’ year?
The Buffalo Bills will play the 2026 season in a brand new home, having never managed to win the Super Bowl during their time playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium, to which they said farewell at the end of last season.
Arguably no NFL franchise is more synonymous with heartbreak than the Bills. Their four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the 90s became the subject of an ESPN documentary, and they have yet to make it back to the grandest stage despite boasting perhaps the finest quarterback in the game in Josh Allen.
Allen has helped Buffalo to at least the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs in each of the last six seasons, only to see each campaign end with a gut-wrenching defeat.
So, heading into this season, the question in Buffalo is a familiar one. Is this finally the year?
Once again, there’s a lot to like about the Bills. With the addition of wide receiver DJ Moore, Allen has a well-rounded cast of skill-position weapons and, with Joe Brady promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach, should be in an excellent position to enjoy an MVP-calibre season.
The problems are on a defense that struggled mightily against the run last season, has depth concerns at linebacker and in the secondary, and is transitioning to a new scheme under Jim Leonhard. The Bills desperately need a defense that will take some of the burden off Allen and the offense. Right now, it’s questionable at best whether they have one.
Will Minter be the man to right the Ravens’ ship?
Alongside the Bills, the Baltimore Ravens, whose last Lombardi Trophy came back in the 2012 season, have developed a strong reputation as another of the AFC’s nearly men.
Last year, though, Baltimore did not even get close to position to suffer playoff heartbreak as they crumbled to a 8-9 finish in another injury-disrupted season for two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson.
That marked the end of John Harbaugh’s 18-season tenure as head coach, with his former defensive backs coach Jesse Minter coming across from the Los Angeles Chargers to take the reins.
Following successful spells as the defensive coordinator in college with the Michigan Wolverines and in two seasons working under Harbaugh’s brother Jim in LA, hopes will be high that Minter can restore the kind of defensive solidity that has been a hallmark of the Ravens over the years.
A bounce-back year will also depend heavily on Jackson’s ability to stay healthy but, after an offseason that saw the Ravens add extensively on both sides of the trenches and bring in more young weapons for their signal-caller, there’s reason for optimism that Baltimore can again contend in Minter’s first year.
Do the Cowboys have a winning formula?
It’s one of the most remarkable stats in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys, arguably the most celebrated team in all of North American sports, have not made the NFC Championship Game since last winning the Super Bowl in 1995.
In that time, every other team in the NFC has reached that stage at least once, with that fact flying in the face of the hype the Cowboys seemingly receive every offseason.
This year, though, there has not been as much attention on the Cowboys. Yet this is a roster that, on the surface at least, looks worthy of that absent hype.
Quarterback Dak Prescott is healthy and coming off an excellent bounce-back year in 2025, with Dallas’ signal-caller boasting a very talented supporting cast led by CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, who have a strong case for the status of best receiver duo in the league.
A huge investment in the defensive front has given the Cowboys a deep group of pass rushers on the interior and off the edge, while there is hope the secondary should be improved following the additions of cornerback Cobie Durant and versatile first-round draft pick Caleb Downs.
The Cowboys look to have the ingredients to push to finally end their long wait for a deep playoff run. The challenge for head coach Brian Schottenheimer and new defensive coordinator Christian Parker is to use them to create a recipe that seriously puts Dallas in the Super Bowl conversation.
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