John Ourand of Puck reports that Week 1 of the NFL season is expected to include the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers playing in Melbourne, Australia, and is expected to feature a Wednesday game, which could very well be that Melbourne matchup.
According to Ourand’s industry sources, the Rams-49ers game “will occur during the opening week of the season, either on Wednesday or Thursday.”
As Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks will host the NBC game that traditionally opens the season.
However, according to Ourand, it remains to be seen if that game will be on Thursday like it usually is, or rather on Wednesday, due to the uncertainty of the Melbourne game scheduling.
If the NFL chooses to put the Melbourne game on Wednesday, the Seahawks game from Seattle reportedly would stay on Thursday. But if the NFL selects Thursday for the Melbourne game, the Seahawks would play on NBC on Wednesday.
There’s been much conversation about when the Melbourne game would take place, and with the travel and scheduling dilemmas that it demands. There’s a 19-hour time difference between Pacific Time and Melbourne, there’s the crazy travel each way (flights typically ranging from 14.5 to 16 hours), and there are the mental and physical adjustments that come with such travel and time changes. So, it would make sense if the NFL chooses to opt for the earliest possible date — which appears to be Wednesday, September 9 — in an effort to allow the Rams and 49ers to get more rest ahead of Week 2.
While we know that the Seahawks game will be on NBC, the NFL is auctioning off media rights to the Melbourne game, and Ourand notes that those negotiations “with streaming companies” are still taking place.
The official 2026 NFL schedule is expected to be released in mid-May.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.