Sports — Noozify Original — September 10, 2026

Redemption, Reversal and the Long Road Through August: A Look at the 2026 NFL Season

By Dan Chafetz

The 2026 NFL season began taking shape in late July, when teams reported for training camp, the weeks of practice and exhibition games that precede the real schedule. The ceremonial opening came on August 6th in Canton, Ohio, where the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers met in the Hall of Fame Game, the exhibition that traditionally welcomes a new season. The regular schedule opened on a stranger note. On September 9th, the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 13-10 in a rematch of Super Bowl LX, a game Seattle won without its starting quarterback after Sam Darnold left with a hip injury on the opening series. Tonight the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams play the NFL's first regular-season game in Australia. Together those games capture a season shaped by two competing forces, remarkable continuity at the top and major turnover almost everywhere else. The defending champions remain largely intact, while roughly one-third of the league has installed new leadership on the sideline or in the front office.

That turnover produced ten new head coaches, an extraordinary amount of change for a league of 32 teams. The hires show the two ways franchises usually chase stability. Some reach for proven names, as the New York Giants did in luring John Harbaugh from Baltimore after more than a decade there, and as Pittsburgh did in bringing back Mike McCarthy, a Super Bowl winner from his Green Bay years. Others promote from within or gamble on a rising assistant. Buffalo elevated its offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, who accepted blame for the five turnovers in the Bills' playoff defeat and described the accountability he intends to bring to the job: "I'm the weather, and they're going to feel it every single day." Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak, who called Seattle's plays on the way to the title, a reminder of how quickly a coordinator can move from running an offense to running an entire organization.

Few stories capture the league's unpredictability better than Kyler Murray's separation from Arizona. Once the first overall pick and the long-term face of the Cardinals, Murray entered the winter as a player the franchise was trying to move. His massive contract made a trade nearly impossible, since potential suitors had little interest in taking on the financial commitment. Arizona released him in March, and Minnesota signed him to a one-year deal at the league minimum, an astonishing change in circumstances for a two-time Pro Bowler with more than 20,000 career passing yards. After a brief training-camp battle with incumbent J.J. McCarthy, Murray was named the Vikings' Week 1 starter in August.

The incoming rookie class carries its own storylines. The Raiders selected Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza first overall, although Las Vegas plans to start veteran Kirk Cousins before eventually handing Mendoza the offense, the patient approach many teams now prefer with a young quarterback. The New York Jets used the second pick on Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey, and Dallas traded up for Ohio State safety Caleb Downs to fix a secondary that needed playmaking ability.

Kansas City begins the season from an unfamiliar position. For the first time since 2018, the Chiefs sit outside the top eight in ESPN's preseason Football Power Index, the network's statistical rating of every team. The comparison carries some comfort, because 2018 was also the season Patrick Mahomes took over as the starter and led the team to the AFC Championship Game. Mahomes has returned to full participation in training camp after surgery to repair a torn ACL and LCL, the two knee ligaments he damaged last December, and he acknowledged the balancing act: "I'm trying to protect it, but at the same time, I'm trying to push it and get myself ready to go for the season." How that knee holds up over a seventeen-game season may be one of the most important questions hanging over the entire league.

At the top of the preseason outlook, the Los Angeles Rams have emerged as the consensus favorite, strengthened by the addition of edge rusher Myles Garrett and the prospect of another MVP-level season from Matthew Stafford. Chicago has drawn attention after coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams produced a dramatic turnaround in a single season, and Philadelphia remains in the mix despite trading A.J. Brown to New England.

Then there is Aaron Donald, whose possible return is the offseason's biggest wild card. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year retired while still playing at the highest level, and he has not officially committed to coming back, but he has worked out with the Rams several times this summer, including an official session in a Rams helmet at the team's facility. Sean McVay called it the best tryout the team had ever had and said Donald could make the roster. If he returns, Los Angeles would be adding a future Hall of Famer to a defensive front that is already among the league's deepest.

Murray and Donald represent two versions of the same NFL reality. One was a once-in-a-generation prospect who now plays on a minimum contract after leaving the franchise that drafted him. The other stepped away at his peak and is weighing a return to a defense that hardly needs another star. Both cases show how unstable value is in professional football. Players move from indispensable to expendable with startling speed, and organizations constantly reassess what past accomplishments are worth in the present. Minnesota is betting that Murray's decline was a product of circumstances and can be reversed. Should Donald return, the Rams would be making the opposite wager, that an older player can still deliver elite production.

It is easy to treat August as little more than the waiting room for the real season. The turbulence of this offseason suggests otherwise. Harbaugh's move to New York, Murray's fall from franchise centerpiece to a quarterback fighting for his next opportunity, the coaching turnover across the league and Donald's uncertain status all point to the same conclusion, that stability is temporary in the NFL. Careers, roles and expectations can change with one transaction, one injury or one organizational decision.

Seattle and New England have now lived that reality twice this year, once in February and again on opening night, when the champions won by three points with a backup at quarterback. For everyone else, the weeks of August were about discovering which contenders are legitimate, which rebuilds are working and which players are preparing for reversals of their own.