Sunday, September 13th
Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants, 8:20 PM ET
The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants get us rolling for the first Sunday Night Football Game of the 2026 season. The Cowboys and Giants both took some positive strides this offseason - the Cowboys revamped the defense with a slew of new players, also notably hiring Christian Parker, a Vic Fangio disciple, as the new coordinator.
Even if the defense ranks 17th in points allowed, Dallas' top-10 offense will allow the team to capture the NFC East title. We could be looking at one of the more complete teams in football for this reason, especially if the defense is better than we think.
The Giants hired John Harbaugh this offseason, who, if nothing else, will be a stabilizer. Also, Jaxson Dart did amass 24 total touchdowns in 14 games as a rookie, which is impressive despite the perceived dysfunction.
Overall, though, the Cowboys are 'ahead' of the Giants in just about everything at the moment, so the more reliable, experienced team is going to come out a victor here, but as we know with divisional games, it'll be a bit closer than we think.
Cowboys win by a touchdown.
Prediction: Giants win 26-20
Monday, September 14th
Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs, 8:15 PM ET
The third divisional matchup of the Week 1 primetime slate ends the first regular season week of the season, as the Denver Broncos are in Arrowhead to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Quietly, the Broncos have won three games in a row against the Chiefs and did sweep them in the 2025 season.
Bo Nix and the Broncos won 14 games in 2025 and fielded a team that had zero major roster holes. That is also the case for 2026, as the team brought just about everyone back and only primarily lost two part-time defensive players.
And while the common theme with the Chiefs is to assume they bounce back in 2026 with the addition of Kenneth Walker III, there are still sizeable holes on both sides of the ball. The Chiefs were only 6-8 with a healthy Patrick Mahomes in 2025 for a reason, and now, he's projected to return for Week 1, but it's the first game back from his major knee injury.
There is reason to believe that Mahomes isn't going to be close to his old self, and with the Broncos bringing back the overwhelming majority of what was nearly a Super Bowl team, they should win this one, even if it's a one- score game.
Prediction: Broncos win 24-17
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