The NFL is back … a day early! The 2026-27 regular season kicks off on Wednesday evening when they defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks host the Patriots.
The NFL normally kicks off the season on Thursday, but this year’s addition of a game in Australia has thrown that off. The 49ers and Rams will face off in Melbourne on Thursday (Friday in Melbourne), and that has resulted in the traditional Super Bowl champ kickoff moving up a day.
There are plenty of favorites and usual suspects we can expect to be good and bad. However, it’s also early enough that we have a host of questions still to answer. That won’t stop me from making weekly picks even this early, but it might take a few weeks to get on track.
And so, I am indeed back with my weekly picks. I pick games straight up with winners and losers, but I also provide a confidence level. I’ll pick each game’s winner and slot the picks based on confidence levels — high, medium, low, and no. A game with three asterisks (***) after it indicates a game where I’m picking the betting underdog to get the win. Whether you have to assign confidence points or not, this will help you know where I’m standing with the picks. And within each group, I’ve ordered them based on confidence within the confidence level.
Normally these picks will go up each Thursday morning. For this week it’s Wednesday, due to the early Patriots-Seahawks game. But next week we’ll be back to our Thursday schedule.
As always for transparency’s sake, I’m a 49ers fan, so every week you should take that pick with a grain of salt.
High confidence
Jaguars over Browns
Chargers over Cardinals
Medium confidence
Steelers over Falcons
49ers over Rams
Seahawks over Patriots
Ravens over Colts
Lions over Saints
Eagles over Commanders
Bears over Panthers
Cowboys over Giants
Low confidence
Titans over Jets
Raiders over Dolphins
Packers over Vikings***
Broncos over Chiefs***
Bucs over Bengals***
Texans over Bills***