Welcome back for another season of the greatest product on television as the NFL season kicks off on a Wednesday night at Lumen Field just a few blocks walk from beautiful Pioneer Square in Seattle. As the Seahawks raise their championship banner, their Super Bowl 60 opponent, the New England Patriots will attempt to erase the ugly memory of Seattle’s 29-13 win.
Last season in the NFL flipped the prognosticator’s on their head as usual, with the Seahawks and Patriots an unlikely pair in the Super Bowl, Perennial favorites such as the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens in the AFC and the Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC all fell short.
With New England, Chicago, Denver and Carolina surprisingly leading their divisions, the 2025 season had no shortage of fresh blood in the playoffs as young quarterbacks Drake Maye, Caleb Williams Bo Nix and Bryce Young represented the next generation of quarterbacks in the playoffs.
Now the 2026 season kicks off with Patrick Mahomes back in Kansas City, a changing of the guard at head coach in Buffalo, Baltimore and Pittsburgh and the NFC with the prohibitive favorite Los Angeles Rams loading up in the offseason and luring back Aaron Donald to team-up with trade acquisitions Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie on defense while MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford returns for another go-round.
As usual, optimism abounds in all 32 markets before the season begins (okay, maybe not in Miami as the rebuild is in full tear-down and tank mode). After New England and Chicago’s quick turnarounds last season, fan bases in New Orleans, Tennessee, New York and Las Vegas ask “why not us”.
After the Wednesday night Super Bowl rematch spectacle in Seattle on NBC/Peacock, the NFL goes down under on Thursday night as Netflix broadcasts from the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia where locally it will be kicking off on Friday at 10:35 a.m but Thursday night back in the US (yes, the earth is round, flat-earthers--just because you don’t understand basic science doesn’t make it a conspiracy). The 49ers and Rams face off in what is a key NFC West battle.
Sunday is a beautiful day for the NFL Red Zone crowd with eight games in the early window.
Two surprise division winners from 2025, the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers face-off. New head coach Jesse Minter leads a healthy Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens into Indianapolis to face the Colts (whose season is hanging on the health of Daniel Jones and Sauce Gardner). An angry Baker Mayfield, with no new contract extension, leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Cincinnati to take on the preseason darling Bengals.
The Dead Money Man, Tua Tagolovaia is in Atlanta now as the Falcons face Aaron Rodgers and new head coach Mike McCarthy and the Pittsburgh Steelers in what looks like a season destined to go off the rails in a wildly entertaining fashion. The newly loaded-up on over-the-hill veterans New York Jets fight to keep second-year head coach Aaron Glenn’s job as they face their past ghosts in Tennessee as former Jets coach Robert Salah hosts them in his first game as head coach of the Titans.
My preseason NFC Champion pick, the New Orleans Saints and quarterback Tyler Shough head into the dome to take on Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions. With Sean McDermott shown the door, new head coach Joe Brady leads Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills against arguably the best defense in the NFL as they face the Houston Texans and quarterback C.J. Stroud in a what could be a make-or-break season.
Finally, the early games wrap up with Deshawn Watson somehow at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns as they travel to Duval to take on Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars as Travis Hunter returns from injury to electrify the defending AFC South champs on both sides of the ball.
In the late window, there are four games in week one.
The Arizona Cardinals travel to Los Angeles to get the first look at Mike McDonald’s new look offense as they face-off against the Chargers. Meanwhile, in a NFC North grudge match, the Green Bay Packers visit the Minnesota Vikings as the nation gets to see how Kyler Murray does dressed in purple and throwing to Justin Jefferson.
Jeff Hafley takes his “ripped down to the studs” Miami Dolphins into Las Vegas where they face Kirk Cousins and the Raiders. Finally, it’s an NFC East battle as the Washington Commanders and quarterback Jayden Daniels look to bounce back from a disappointing 2025 season at Philadelphia. The Eagles try to defend their back-to-back NFC East titles after another season of turnover and yet another new offensive coordinator for Jalen Hurts.
After waiting all week for Sunday night (at least that is what NBC/Peacock tells us we do), the NFC East takes center stage for the Dak Prescott/Jaxon Dart showdown as the Dallas Cowboys visit John Harbaugh’s new look New York Giants.
Finally, on Monday Night Football ESPN gets a marquee AFC West battle at Arrowhead (thankfully no longer GEHA Field, which just sounded so wrong) as Patrick Mahomes returns from his season-ending knee injury and takes on Sean Payton and NFC West defending champion Broncos. It’s a tough test for Mahomes as Nik Bonitto and Pat Surtain anchor Denver’s ferocious defense.
Each week during the season, I make my picks with my buddy David on his SportsKrunch with DKrom podcast as we’ve done regularly for more than five years now (and many appearances pre-pandemic as well).
Check out this week’s episode as we made our preseason award predictions for the 2026 NFL Season, as well as division winners and playoff teams, checked in on the biggest NFL news, and of course all the game predictions and prognostications with our bold predictions--it is available here.
Please give a listen each week on your preferred podcast provider. All back episodes are available here at Apple podcasts.
As always, the running tally of the predictions will be tracked here including straight up and against the spread results for each prior week and the running tally for the season. In addition, the lock of the week and upset special results are tracked.
All picks are for entertainment purposes only, but the Saints to be NFC Champions is currently at 4,000 to one odds on most betting apps, and if you listened to the podcast you can tell that I jumped all over that bet while we were in the middle of recording the show! This is the year of the Saints--You heard it here first.
Now, on to the week one picks!
Wednesday
New England Patriots 22 at Seattle Seahawks 24 (-3.5)
Moneyline: Seahawks
Vs Spread: Patriots
Thursday, in Melbourne
San Francisco 49ers 24 at Los Angeles Rams 20 (-2.5)
Moneyline:49ers
Vs Spread: 49ers
Sunday Early Window:
New Orleans Saints 23 at Detroit Lions 20 (-7) UPSET SPECIAL
Moneyline: Saints
Vs Spread: Saints
Buffalo Bills 13 (-1.5) at Houston Texans 17
Moneyline: Texans
Vs Spread: Texans
Baltimore Ravens 24 (-3.5) at Indianapolis Colts 27
Moneyline: Colts
Vs Spread: Colts
Chicago Bears 27 (-2.5) at Carolina Panthers 24
Moneyline: Bears
Vs Spread: Bears
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27 at Cincinnati Bengals 33 (-3.5) (OT)
Moneyline: Bengals
Vs Spread: Bengals
Atlanta Falcons 21 at Pittsburgh Steelers 20 (-3)
Moneyline: Falcons
Vs Spread: Falcons
New York Jets 13 at Tennessee Titans 17 (-3)
Moneyline: Titans
Vs Spread: Titans
Cleveland Browns 23 at Jacksonville Jaguars 31 (-7) LOCK OF THE WEEK
Moneyline: Jaguars
Vs Spread: Jaguars
Sunday Late Window:
Washington Commanders 18 at Philadelphia Eagles 20 (-5.5)
Moneyline: Eagles
Vs Spread: Commanders
Arizona Cardinals 16 at Los Angeles Chargers 24 (-11)
Moneyline: Chargers
Vs Spread: Cardinals
Miami Dolphins 9 at Las Vegas Raiders 27 (-3)
Moneyline: Raiders
Vs Spread: Raiders
Green Bay Packers 24 (-1.5) at Minnesota Vikings 16
Moneyline: Packers
Vs Spread: Packers
Sunday Night Football:
Dallas Cowboys 38 (-2.5) at New York Giants 34
Moneyline: Cowboys
Vs Spread: Cowboys
Monday Night Football:
Denver Broncos 27 at Kansas City Chiefs 17 (-2.5)
Moneyline: Broncos
Vs Spread: Broncos
BONUS:
Hal’s DraftKings Parlay Play of the Week:
Saints (Moneyline +250),
Colts (Moneyline +145),
Falcons (Moneyline +154), and
Raiders (Moneyline -185)
Odds: +3255
$10 pays $335.53
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