Football Is Back: Seven Key Storylines for the 2026 NFL Season

The NFL has no shortage of elite quarterbacks. And most of them have never been to the Super Bowl. 

Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills gunslinger and 2024 league MVP, has come close. What’s stopping him? Patrick Mahomes, of course. Or so we thought. As the starting quarterback, Allen has led his team to the AFC Championship twice, in 2020 and 2024, and both times, Mahomes’ Chiefs have eliminated them (not to mention that 2021 comeback in the AFC Divisional playoffs wherein Mahomes drove the Chiefs 44 yards up the field in 13 seconds to tie it, eventually winning in overtime). Last season marked the first in Allen’s career where he found himself in the playoffs sans Mahomes, but the Bills still faced early elimination at the hands of upstart Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos. The Bills lost four consecutive Super Bowls in the ‘90s and have yet to win the big game. Will this finally be Allen and the Bills’ year? 

On the opposite coast sits Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers. Widely regarded as one of the top ten quarterbacks in the league, he has yet to lead his team to a single postseason victory. Sure, it’s a team sport, and the Chargers were dealing with a slew of injured players last year, but chucking four interceptions in their playoff matchup against the Texans left critics left even the most ardent Herbert supporters shaking their heads. We’ll see if Herbert can show up when it matters most. 

The Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow not only led his team to the 2022 Super Bowl in his second year in the league but has also proven to be Mahomes’ playoff kryptonite. Since that narrow loss to the Rams, the star QB has been plagued by injury after injury, including a torn ligament in his wrist in 2023 and turf toe in 2025.

And what about the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP, and his 3-5 career playoff record?

During the offseason, the Bengals made several acquisitions to improve their pitiful defense, including flipping a top-ten pick for god tier DT Dexter Lawrence II; the Chargers hired offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel; the Bills replaced longstanding coach Sean McDermott with offensive coordinator Joe Brady; and the Ravens added stud DE Trey Hendrickson after the Maxx Crosby deal blew up. May the best quarterback win.

In addition to one of the league’s best run-stoppers in “Sexy Dexy” joining the Bengals, providing some much-needed leadership to one of the league’s worst defenses, a number of other big offseason moves will change the course of the NFL this season. Myles Garrett finally decamped from the Cleveland Browns, where playoff dreams go to die, for decidedly sunnier pastures in Los Angeles with the Rams — where he’ll be joined by legendary DT Aaron Donald, who’s come out of retirement to wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks. Let’s pour one out for all the offensive linemen tasked with stopping these two.

Two of the league’s most talented quarterbacks, Drake Maye of the Patriots and Josh Allen of the Bills, have thankfully been given legitimate no. 1 receiving options in the form of A.J. Brown (who seemed deeply unhappy in Philly) and DJ Moore. Last season, Maye led his team all the way to the Super Bowl in only his second year in the league with a ragtag group of receivers and perennial problem Stefon Diggs. The addition of one of the NFL’s biggest, strongest wideouts will surely pay dividends. Speaking of Stefon Diggs, his old teammate Allen hasn’t had a proper no. 1 option at receiver since he rather foolishly jumped ship. Moore is a major upgrade and could be the missing piece to get Allen to the Big Game.

As for the quarterbacks, a number of players will be under center somewhere else this season — most notably the diminutive Kyler Murray, who jumped from the Arizona Cardinals to the Minnesota Vikings (safe to say the JJ McCarthy-replacing-Sam Darnold experiment has not gone swimmingly), where he’ll be firing the pigskin to one of the best receiving corps in the league, led by Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. If he can avoid the concussions, Tua Tagovailoa could put up big numbers at indoor Mercedes-Benz Stadium, while the Packers’ backup Malik Willis will be supplanting Tagovailoa as Dolphins QB. It will also be interesting to see how no. 1 draft pick (and Heisman winner) Fernando Mendoza fares on the Raiders, where he’ll be throwing to arguably the best tight end in Brock Bowers. Oh, and Geno Smith has returned to the team that drafted him, the New York Jets, but the less said about that franchise the better.

Last season, Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend a regular season NFL game since 1978, appearing to a mix of cheers and jeers at a matchup between D.C.’s Washington Commanders and the Detroit Lions in Nov. 2025. And then he earned the distinction of being the first sitting president to go to the Super Bowl, which turned out to be a terrible game (coincidence or not?). My money is on Trump hitting up even more NFL games this season since the man cannot help himself — he is obsessed with crowds and TV ratings, and nothing attracts more eyeballs in America than the NFL. Trump, of course, has a long, messy history with the NFL, from serving as a team owner in the flop rival league USFL in the ‘80s to his thwarted attempt to purchase the Buffalo Bills in 2014,which could have changed the course of history, to trying to set up pal Tom Brady with his daughter Ivanka in his heyday. For Trump, the NFL is personal.

In addition to the gargantuan distraction Trump poses at games, he is also dividing locker rooms. During the offseason, New York Giants QB Jaxson Dart introduced Trump at a political rally in Upstate New York, prompting his teammate, DE Abdul Carter, to tweet out, “Thought this shit was AI.” The two both released statements saying they’d buried the hatchet, with Carter saying, in part, “Some things are bigger than football, and this is one of those things. Jaxson is one of our leaders. He’s the face of our franchise. He not only represents himself and what he does, but he represents all of us, and that goes for anybody who wears a Giants uniform, but if he chooses to align himself with a man like President Trump, it’s my responsibility, based on what I believe and what I stand on, to not only show my teammates that I’m against that, but to show the world.”

Trump is one of the more divisive figures in American history and his approval rating just hit record lows, so it remains to be seen how much more turmoil he’ll cause in locker rooms across the league.

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Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? 

All eyes are on the Kansas City Chiefs following their substandard 2025 season. Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champ, had a particularly rough go of it and, in mid-December, tore his ACL and LCL ligaments in his left knee. Rehab reports have been largely positive, with on-the-ground sources claiming that this has been his best training camp yet. Assuming he stays on track, Mahomes is expected to start against the Bo Nix and the Broncos in Week 1. Adding to the excitement is speculation that this will be tight end/Mr. Taylor Swift Travis Kelce’s last year on the field, and he’ll surely want to go out on a high note. Taylor Swift halftime show, anyone?

In Pittsburgh, the once-great Aaron Rodgers is preparing for his last hurrah, having already confirmed this will be his final season. He first made a name for himself in Green Bay, where he went from second string to starting QB following Brett Favre’s retirement. He had several MVP seasons with the team (and one Super Bowl win) but has taken a reputation hit after several off-field scandals, including lying about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and 9/11 conspiracy theories. He joined the New York Jets in 2023, where he suffered an Achilles injury during his first series and went 5-12 his second year. In 2025, he made his final move to the Steelers, where he’ll finish out his 21-year career. Let’s see if the podcaster-in-training generates more on-field headlines than off-field ones.

Taylor Swift first attended a Kansas City Chiefs game in Sept. 2023. From that point on, viewership among women has spiked during every game she’s attended. In a 2025 cover story, Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Littleton spoke with football analyst Mina Kimes, who noted that women who first began watching football to spot Swift in the stands had, slowly but surely, become knowledgeable about the game itself.

Before that, the NFL barely catered to its female fanbase despite them comprising nearly half its audience. In the post-Swift/Kelce era, the NFL’s marketing strategy has evolved to accommodate women who have recently become fans. Their universal complaint? The lack of fashion. Once the league realized ill-fitting jerseys and vintage shirts that were three sizes too big would no longer cut it, they turned their focus to womenswear brands. Just this year, they’ve rolled out new collections with Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria’s Secret and Free People. WAG Kristin Juszczyk tapped into the market too — after her DIY gameday looks went viral they caught the attention of Swift, who commissioned a Chiefs jacket and later wore it to a game. The attention — and financial backing — Juszczyk received was enough to launch her own sportswear brand Off Season, geared toward women searching for stylish gameday treads.

Influencer content — mostly in the form of WAG presence – is also shaping up to play a major role this season. Last month, after Madison Beer (Justin Herbert), Olivia Ponton (Joe Burrow) and Marissa Ayers (Jaxson Dart) were all spotted at team practices within a week of each other, the internet began questioning the timing, particularly given that all three men have a history of keeping their private lives, well, private. Shortly thereafter, Front Office Sports reported that these moments, all caught on camera, were “at least partially coordinated,” fitting into the league’s “helmets-off” marketing effort toward women.

Casting a dark shadow over this initiative is the league’s long, ongoing history of domestic violence allegations and arrests. The only real way to appeal to women is to ensure that they’re respected (on and off the field).

Let’s not mince words: Deshaun Watson starting at quarterback for an NFL team in 2026 is a black eye for the entire league. Putting aside the fact that this man has started 19 games for the Cleveland Browns since signing a 5-year, $230 million contract with the team in 2022 and went on a bizarre rant against his own fan base after a preseason game two weeks ago, Watson has had 24 civil lawsuits filed against him by massage therapists for charges ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault, including forcible kissing and forced oral copulation. Watson settled 23 of the 24 lawsuits and only received an 11-game suspension and $5 million fine. Despite the Browns drafting a pair of quarterbacks — Dillon Gabriel and Shadeur Sanders — last year, Watson has been named the opening-day starter and a team captain. They could have just held on to Baker Mayfield and avoided all this mess, but this is the Browns after all. Maybe it’s karma for throwing batteries at John Elway.

If the Watson mess weren’t enough, just last month the NFL announced it had suspended Falcons star linebacker James Pearce Jr. for the first eight games of the season after he was arrested in February and charged with felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and felony aggravated stalking against his ex-girlfriend, WNBA superstar Rickea Jackson. Pearce Jr. avoided jail time by cutting a plea deal that included therapy and a no-contact order, and his suspension compelled former player (and current pundit) Ryan Clark to tweet, “The NFL has a domestic violence problem. Even after strengthening its personal conduct policy in 2014, nearly half of the league’s violent-crime cases involve domestic violence.”

It’s clear that the NFL still has a long way to go when it comes to addressing its domestic violence problem. And the longer it’s ignored, the worse it’s going to get.

Late last year, dozens of people were federally indicted for everything from rigging sports betting to conducting high-stakes poker games with mob ties. Then Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups and players Terry Rozier and Malik Beasley were nabbed, along with ex-player Damon Jones. That active players like Rozier and Beasley were manipulating games to to appease bettors cast a dark cloud over the league. A major issue, it seems, is that the menu of available bets is so broad that it invites double-dealing. Why would anyone need to bet on a bench player like Jontay Porter scoring less than a few points in a game? And will the NFL be the next big sports league hit by a betting scandal? These players get paid far less than their NBA counterparts and assume far more physical risk.

On Aug. 27, the NFL announced official multi-year partnerships with three leading sports betting operators: DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics Betting and Gaming. The league also held protracted negotiations with the “prediction markets” Kalshi and Polymarket but could not reach an agreement.

ABC News subsequently obtained a letter that the NFL sent Kalshi and Polymarket, stating, “It is deeply concerning that bets within the objectionable categories that we identified months ago have been and continue to be listed as contracts on exchanges,” citing “predictions” that are “easily manipulable by a single person” such as if a kicker misses a field goal or a quarterback starts the game by throwing an incomplete pass. “Continuing to list these objectionable contracts threatens the underlying integrity of our games and creates significant risks for our players, coaches, and officials, as well as for those participating on your exchanges,” read the letter.

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