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The NFL season began with standalone prime-time games Wednesday night in Seattle and Thursday night in Melbourne. But the season gets going in earnest Sunday with a full slate of 13 games, followed by the Monday night cap to Week 1 in Kansas City.
The NFL is the closest-watched sport in the country, as its mammoth viewership figures demonstrate. It finished the 2025 regular season with a per-game viewership average of 18.7 million, up 10% from the prior year, and the best such total since 1989. No other programming can consistently compete—and no league has bigger ambitions.
Quarterbacks and their contracts are in focus—and as always, the spotlight is on whether Jerry Jones can make this year his own. There’s lots more to watch for as this year’s NFL season opens.
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson
The two quarterbacks have three league MVP awards between them—but zero Super Bowl appearances. They missed their chance to break through last season in a down season for the Chiefs. It’s not necessarily now-or-never time for Allen’s Bills or Jackson’s Ravens—at least not yet. But that’s creeping closer, especially with Jackson’s contract situation.
He’s entering the fourth season of a five-year, $260 million deal, and there’s been speculation an agreement on another extension could be coming. Both star quarterbacks have new coaches: Joe Brady with the Bills, and Jesse Minter with the Ravens. And both have tough opening matchups on the road, with the Bills in Houston and the Ravens in Indianapolis.
Is This Jerry Jones’s Year?
Jones has built the Cowboys into the most valuable franchise in sports. Every new team sale causes estimates of their value to be revised slightly upward; the latest is around $16 or $17 billion. It was only two years ago when that number crossed $10 billion for the first time. And the figure could be considerably richer in the highly unlikely event Jones sells the Cowboys in the foreseeable future. But they have not reached the Super Bowl in three decades.
They begin this season with a Sunday night game against the Giants in the Meadowlands, and a team of possibilities. The offense has quarterback Dak Prescott with two top wideouts in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens at his disposal. The defense has been rebuilt a year after Jones traded Micah Parsons to the Packers, with a strong front seven and a potential star in the secondary in rookie safety Caleb Downs. The Cowboys also have cleared plenty of salary-cap space for a potential big trade. Maybe they can deliver on their promise this time for their always-front-and-center owner.
2024 QB Class
Nothing is better for a team’s salary-cap situation than having a young, highly productive quarterback still playing on a comparatively inexpensive rookie contract. Drake Maye had the Patriots in the Super Bowl last season. Bo Nix helped the Broncos to reach the AFC championship game, but missed the loss to the Patriots because of a broken ankle. Caleb Williams got the Bears into the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. Jayden Daniels had the Commanders in the NFC championship game as a rookie in the 2024 season.
Those four are fulfilling the great expectations for the 2024 quarterback class that saw six QBs chosen in the first 12 picks of the NFL Draft. They need to keep building on that in Year 3—but there are a few hurdles in the way, as J.J. McCarthy begins the season as a third-stringer for the Vikings and the Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. is still working his way back from his latest knee injury.
QBs in New Spots
The second-best thing, though, might be a cheap rebound year from a veteran quarterback looking to prove his worth to the league again.
There are a few potential cases of that this year: Kyler Murray signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract with the Vikings after being released by the Cardinals, who owed him a guaranteed $36.8 million for this season. He’s the starter for Sunday’s opener at home against the Packers. Tua Tagovailoa signed a one-year, $1.215 million deal with the Falcons after being released by the Dolphins, who owed him a guaranteed $54 million for this season. He was slated to be the starter Sunday at Pittsburgh, but was ruled out Friday due to an oblique injury, meaning Cooper Rush will make a fill-in start. Kirk Cousins signed what amounts to a one-year, $20 million deal with the Raiders after being released by the Falcons. He opens the season as the starter against the Dolphins ahead of rookie Fernando Mendoza, the top overall pick in the NFL Draft.
New Coaches
The impatience of NFL owners was on full display during an offseason in which 10 teams hired new head coaches—nine of them because of firings (including two during last season), and one because Mike Tomlin stepped away in Pittsburgh. It’s a win-now league—and a win-or-else proposition to the owners, perhaps more than ever. Fan bases must be given hope and a reason to buy tickets, after all.
The 10 new coaches make their debuts Sunday: John Harbaugh with the Giants, Kevin Stefanski with the Falcons, Brady with the Bills, Minter with the Ravens, Klint Kubiak with the Raiders, Mike McCarthy with the Steelers, Todd Monken with the Browns, Jeff Hafley with the Dolphins, Mike LaFleur with the Cardinals, and Robert Saleh with the Titans.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals
Burrow is in the second season of a five-year, $275 million contract extension. He’s beginning his seventh NFL season. Burrow, who turns 30 in December, isn’t old yet—but he’s not a kid any more, either. After leading the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance in his second NFL season in the 2021 season, and bringing them back to the AFC championship game the following year, Burrow has not made the playoffs since and the Bengals went a dismal 6–11 last season. He has endured a series of injuries. The urgency will be high this season for the Bengals’ franchise quarterback—and everyone else in the organization.
Deshaun Watson’s Last Chance
Watson is in the final season of his five-year contract, worth a guaranteed $230 million. The Browns have gotten very little for their money thus far. Monken named Watson the starter entering the season over second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders, even after Watson called boos directed at him by Cleveland fans during a preseason game “disrespectful.” The Browns open the season with two road games, including Sunday’s contest at Jacksonville, before Watson would have to play a home game in Week 3 if he remains the starter.
Dolphins Competitiveness
The new football brain trust of GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and Hafley performed a roster overhaul. Miami released Tagovailoa and absorbed a salary cap hit of $99.2 million, including $55.4 million this season. According to Spotrac, the Dolphins have a league-high $183.9 million in dead cap this season, out of an NFL salary cap of $301.2 million per team (and an adjusted cap of $301.8 million for the Dolphins, based on carryover from last season).
The Dolphins signed former Packers backup Malik Willis to a three-year, $67.5 million deal in free agency in March to take over at QB. Fielding a competitive team, given the restrictions created by their salary cap situation, will be an immense task for Hafley and the Dolphins. The first test of that comes Sunday in Las Vegas.
Brady and the Raiders
The seven-time Super Bowl–winning quarterback was approved by NFL owners in October 2024 as a part-owner of Las Vegas. Brady and his investment partner, Knighthead Capital Management co-founder Tom Wagner, purchased approximately 10% of the Raiders for an estimated $220 million, plus a 10% “flip tax.”
Since then, Brady occasionally has had to defend his dual role with the Raiders and as the lead analyst on Fox’s NFL broadcasts. There was a mini-uproar when he sat in the Raiders’ coaches booth, wearing a headset, during a Monday night game early last season. He has been subject to team-access restrictions in his Fox duties imposed by the league (which also extended those rules this season to ESPN analyst Troy Aikman based on his consultant role with the Dolphins).
But so far, there’s been little on-field success for the Raiders to show for all of it. They went a combined 7–27 over the previous two seasons. Perhaps better times are ahead, with Kubiak in place and Mendoza waiting for his turn at quarterback. A season-opening win Sunday over the Dolphins would provide at least a week of positive feelings.
