The previews are done. The rosters are set. The games start today.
We spent the last six weeks breaking down all 32 teams -- the quarterbacks returning from injuries, the rookies with everything to prove, the coaching staffs trying to close the gap, and the contenders with unfinished business from January. Now it is time to put it all on the table.
Here are our 2026 NFL season predictions.
Division Winners
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens (12-5) Lamar Jackson is healthy, the offense has more answers under Declan Doyle, and Trey Hendrickson gives the pass rush the front-line finisher Baltimore needed. The Ravens are the most complete team in the AFC North and the team nobody in this conference wants to see in January.
AFC South: Jacksonville Jaguars (11-6) Defending division champions. Trevor Lawrence playing the best football of his career. Liam Coen in Year 2. The Jaguars hold the division title until someone takes it from them, and Houston pushing hard at 11-6 is not quite enough.
AFC East: Buffalo Bills (12-5) The Bills have been here before and know how to handle it. Josh Allen is the most dangerous quarterback in the AFC East and the offense around him is the most complete it has been in years. Buffalo wins the division comfortably.
AFC West: Denver Broncos (13-4) The class of the conference. Bo Nix healthy in Year 3, Jaylen Waddle added, PFF's top-ranked offensive line returning intact, and Pat Surtain II locking down one side of the field. The Broncos are the AFC's No. 1 seed and the team the conference is built around stopping.
NFC North: Detroit Lions (11-6) The Lions have earned the right to be taken seriously, and this year they get to prove it again. The defense has been rebuilt and the offense around Jared Goff is dangerous enough to win the division. They hold off a Green Bay team that will push them every week.
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons (10-7) The NFC South is the most winnable division in football and Atlanta capitalizes. Ten wins in a division where no one breaks double digits easily is enough to earn a home playoff game. Whether it is enough to go further is a different question.
NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles (11-6) The Eagles are the class of the NFC East. The offense is built to score and the defense is built to take the ball away. Philadelphia wins the division and enters the playoffs as one of the most dangerous teams in the conference.
NFC West: Los Angeles Rams (12-5) Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, Myles Garrett, Aaron Donald, and a Sean McVay operation built for January. The Rams have been here before and they know what it takes. Twelve wins and an NFC West title put them on a collision course with the rest of the conference -- and we like where that collision ends.
The Full Playoff Picture
AFC Seeds:
- Denver Broncos (13-4)
- Baltimore Ravens (12-5)
- Buffalo Bills (12-5)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (11-6)
- Cincinnati Bengals (11-6)
- New England Patriots (11-6)
- Los Angeles Chargers (11-6)
NFC Seeds:
- Los Angeles Rams (12-5)
- Philadelphia Eagles (11-6)
- Detroit Lions (11-6)
- Atlanta Falcons (10-7)
- Seattle Seahawks (11-6)
- Dallas Cowboys (10-7)
- Green Bay Packers (10-7)
Super Bowl LXI Pick
Los Angeles Rams over Baltimore Ravens
This is the matchup the season is building toward.
The Ravens are the AFC's most complete team -- Lamar Jackson at his peak, a defense built to make January miserable, and a front office that has not stopped adding. They are the team that the AFC should be afraid of, and they will be in this game because they are legitimately that good.
But the Rams are the NFC's best team, and the reason comes down to one word: McVay. Sean McVay has been to this game before. He knows what preparation looks like in January, he knows what adjustments feel like at halftime of a Super Bowl, and he has Matthew Stafford playing the best football of his career with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams giving him two high-end answers in the passing game.
The Ravens win the AFC. The Rams win the NFC. The game is exactly as good as it sounds. And when the final whistle blows, the Lombardi Trophy goes back to Los Angeles.
Rams 27, Ravens 24.
Award Predictions
MVP: Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens This is not a bold pick. It is the correct one. Jackson is the best player in football when he is healthy and operating in a functional offense, and both of those things are true in 2026. He has won this award before. He will win it again. The Ravens' 12-5 record is built around what he does on a weekly basis, and the voters will acknowledge it.
Offensive Player of the Year: Ladd McConkey, WR, Los Angeles Chargers Here is where it gets interesting. McConkey in Mike McDaniel's system, with Justin Herbert throwing him the football, is the most explosive receiver-quarterback combination in the AFC that nobody is talking about enough. McConkey puts up 110 catches, 1,400 yards, and double-digit touchdowns and makes everyone who did not see it coming feel appropriately foolish. The award goes to the player nobody expected when the season started. That player is McConkey.
Defensive Player of the Year: Will Anderson Jr., EDGE, Houston Texans Anderson is 24 years old. He was First-Team All-Pro last season. He is about to have the best season of his career with a full offseason of preparation, a healthier offensive line keeping the Texans in games, and a DC who knows how to use him. The DPOY is going to Houston.
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Carnell Tate, WR, Tennessee Titans The fourth overall pick in the 2026 draft arrives in Tennessee with the best set of tools a first-year receiver can have: a quarterback in Cam Ward who needs him desperately, a Brian Daboll offense designed to create space for receivers who can run clean routes, and a fanbase that has been waiting for a reason to believe. Tate gives them one. He hits 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns and collects the award with a speech that mentions his quarterback and his coach and sounds like someone who has been doing this for years.
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Arvell Reese, LB/EDGE, New York Giants Reese gives the Giants the kind of versatile defensive chess piece who can pile up production quickly -- off-ball range, edge-rush ability, pressure packages, and enough athleticism to stay on the field in every situation. He records enough sacks, tackles for loss, and splash plays to become the rookie defender voters keep coming back to, even if New York does not make the playoffs.
Coach of the Year: Sean Payton, Denver Broncos Payton has turned Denver from a rebuild into the AFC's No. 1 seed, and Bo Nix's Year 3 jump is the final piece that makes the transformation feel complete. A healthy quarterback, an upgraded passing game, and a defense ready to carry Denver to February give Payton the Coach of the Year case voters love: a clear team identity, a top seed, and a roster playing exactly the way its coach designed it to play.
Five Bold Predictions
1. The Jaguars reach the AFC Championship Game. The boldest thing we can say about the 2026 NFL season is that Trevor Lawrence finally makes the kind of January run that justifies everything Jacksonville has invested in him. Lawrence in Liam Coen's Year 2 system, operating with the confidence of a player who dominated the second half of 2025, goes on a postseason run that nobody fully anticipated. The Jaguars do not reach the Super Bowl in this prediction -- but they get close enough to make the entire AFC rethink what it thought it knew about this team.
2. Patrick Mahomes is not the same quarterback coming off the ACL. We have said it in the preview and we will say it again here. Mahomes is the greatest quarterback of his generation, and he may well prove us wrong before October. But the Chiefs go 9-8 in our projection, and the reason is that the ACL recovery -- the trust in the plant foot, the willingness to take a shot in the pocket, the mental side of an injury that quarterbacks describe as the hardest thing to come back from -- takes longer than the training camp reports suggest. Kansas City misses the playoffs for the second straight year, and the quarterback conversation becomes the most interesting one in the AFC.
3. Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers have a miserable season. We have the Steelers at 9-8. The bold version is that they do not get there. Rodgers at 43, behind an offensive line with questions, in a division with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow -- the conditions are not ideal for a vintage performance. The Steelers spend the season fighting to stay relevant, Rodgers throws too many late-game interceptions in close games, and Pittsburgh misses the playoffs in what turns out to be the final chapter of a Hall of Fame career.
4. The Miami Dolphins are not the worst team in the league. We picked Miami at 5-12, which is bad. But the bold prediction is that they do not finish last. A first-year head coach with an unproven receiver room and a quarterback trying to re-establish himself is a rough combination -- and yet the Cardinals are also 5-12 in our projections, and the Raiders and Browns have their own rebuilding timelines that could easily bottom out. The Dolphins lose a lot of games. Someone else loses more. Miami finds enough fight in a lost season to avoid the No. 1 overall pick, which may turn out to be the most meaningful thing they accomplish all year.
5. Jadan Baugh wins the Heisman Trophy. This one is not NFL. But we watched him against FAU and we are saying it now: Jadan Baugh is a Heisman Trophy candidate, and by December, the conversation will not feel bold at all. The moves, the speed, the power, the hands -- he has everything, and he is playing for a Florida team that is hungry and fun and finally worth watching again. Mark it down.
The Crystal Ball Summary
The 2026 NFL season has everything a fan could want. Seattle trying to repeat. A dynasty trying to find itself after a down year. Two first-year head coaches building something real. Quarterbacks returning from major injuries. Rookies with generational hype. A college football program that just reminded everyone it is back.
The Crystal Ball says: Rams over Ravens, 27-24, in a Super Bowl that goes down to the final drive.
Let's play some football.
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