Coaching hires, stars in different places and rule changes: Here's what's new for the 2026 NFL season

· Yahoo Sports

The NFL is always changing.

Visit michezonews.co.za for more information.

Free agency and big trades assure that players are changing places. Impatient team owners are a cause of heavy coaching turnover. The NFL's desire to expand its reach leads to regular-season games on days of the week we aren't used to and action in new international cities.

Here are the biggest changes to note as the NFL season gets set to kick off:

(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports

If you've never heard the term "Thanksgiving Eve," you will this year thanks to the NFL. The league made up a holiday to stuff another game on the schedule. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the Packers will play at the Rams in a game that will stream on Netflix. Hope you don't have travel plans.

That's the biggest addition to the NFL schedule, though there are other tweaks. The opening night game to start the regular season, between the Patriots and Seahawks, will be on a Wednesday. The 2012 season opener was played on a Wednesday to avoid the Democratic National Convention. This year, the schedule was shifted to squeeze in the Rams and 49ers starting the season in Australia, which will take place Thursday night in U.S. time zones.

International games are a big part of the schedule. There will be a record nine international games this season, spanning seven countries. The NFL will play regular-season games in France and Australia for the first time.

— Frank Schwab

(Yahoo Sports)Yahoo Sports

If it seems like there was a lot of turnover this offseason, there was. The 10 coaching changes tied an NFL record for one offseason. Six of the new hires are getting their shot at being an NFL head coach for the first time. There's also two former NFL Coach of the Year winners (John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski) and a Super Bowl winning coach (Mike McCarthy) among the hires.

— Frank Schwab

(Yahoo Sports)

One change that is mostly impractical is a tweak to the onside kick rules. Last season, the rule that teams could onside kick only in the fourth quarter was removed. In another change for this season, teams don't need to be trailing to onside kick. However, onside kicks aren't exactly a surprise to the opponent when they need to be declared beforehand.

The other change to kickoffs is that teams kicking off from the 50-yard line due to a personal foul won't have an incentive to kick out of bounds. Before, kicking out of bounds placed the ball at the 25-yard line, whereas a touchback would put the ball at the 30. Under the new rule, a touchback will go to the 20-yard line. Also on kickoffs, the receiving team is required to have only five players line up on the restraining line instead of six, allowing up to four players to be off the line.

The other notable change is that NFL personnel can consult with on-field officials "when considering disqualifications for both flagrant football acts and non-football acts" even if a penalty wasn't called on the field.

— Frank Schwab

Play Yahoo's new College Fantasy Football game: Create or join a league now!

There's one new stadium in the NFL this season: Buffalo's Highmark Stadium.

Yes, it's the same name of the old building that stood roughly 500 feet away, so fans who attended a Bills game from 1973 to 2025 won't have trouble with directions. Many other elements of this $2.2 billion project, however, are much different.

First of all, new Highmark's name fits well because it stands roughly 120 feet tall, which is nearly double the old stadium height. A 360-degree steel canopy above the stadium serves two purposes:

1. It supposedly blocks 60-65% of the seats from snow and rain
2. It's meant to funnel fan noise back toward the field

That's probably a good thing because there's a reduction in seating capacity — from 71,608 at the old place to now 60,108 fixed seats, the fewest in the NFL. Full capacity can reach a few thousand more with standing-room fans added, but it will be a more intimate feel, especially with the upper sections pulled closer to the field to create a Roman Colosseum-style seating bowl.

Early fan reports have been mixed, with complaints of poor sight lines, steep climbs to the upper sections and a scoreboard that some find underwhelming by modern standards. But many have praised the beauty of the new building (with several Buffalo-specific touches), the open concourses with continuous field views and the major improvements to food, amenities and comfort. Expect it to get loud in the new jewel box. 

General view of Highmark Stadium during the national anthem before a preseason game between the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers on Aug. 15 in Orchard Park, New York. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)AP Photo/Adrian Kraus

Another franchise is downsizing its capacity — temporarily. Jacksonville's EverBank Stadium will drop to a capacity of roughly 42,500 (down from roughly 70,000) this season as the Jaguars continue working on their $1.4 billion "Stadium of the Future" renovations. 

That means most of the upper deck and the Sky Patio will be offline for the Jaguars' six games at EverBank, with two "home" games in London. The team will temporarily move to Orlando in 2027 and then move back into the fully renovated stadium (to be renamed later) in 2028.

The Titans are also saying goodbye to Nissan Stadium, their home since their Super Bowl season in 1999. They'll play the 2026 season there before moving to — ready for this? — New Nissan Stadium, which is under construction close by on Nashville's East Bank.

Like with Buffalo, New Nissan is going for a more intimate feel and smaller capacity. It has already been selected to host Super Bowl LXIV in 2030.

— Eric Edholm

The 2026 World Cup saw grass installed in many stadiums used by NFL teams this summer. Then that grass was torn out.

Players tweeted support during the Cup for more grass surfaces to be used in the NFL, and the good news for them is that it's at least trending in their desired direction — minimally, anyway.

With the Bills switching from artificial turf at the old Highmark Stadium to natural Kentucky bluegrass at the new Highmark Stadium, the league is now split evenly, with 16 teams having grass on its home fields and 16 using turf. (The stadium split is 16-14 in favor of grass, but two turf-field stadiums — SoFi in L.A. and MetLife in New York — each house two teams.

Clubs on natural grass

Clubs on artificial turf

Cardinals

Falcons

Ravens

Panthers

Bills

Bengals

Bears

Cowboys

Browns

Lions

Broncos

Texans

Packers

Colts

Jaguars

Chargers

Chiefs

Rams

Raiders

Vikings

Dolphins

Patriots

Eagles

Saints

Steelers

Giants

49ers

Jets

Buccaneers

Seahawks

Commanders

Titans

One other team changing playing surfaces, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are sticking with grass but are switching the type they're using. They're going from Kentucky bluegrass to Tahoma 31 Bermuda, a more cold-tolerant variety of natural grass.

Several players complained about the old surface at Acrisure Stadium, earning an F-minus grade in an internal NFLPA study last year. Aaron Rodgers even called it "borderline unplayable" after a win over the Browns last season.

— Eric Edholm

This offseason had a specific flavor, heavier on trades and more specific to wide receivers and both lines of scrimmage.

Trades have been on the influx over the past decade, and we had one of the biggest ones in years with the Browns sending Myles Garrett to the Rams for Jared Verse and multiple draft picks. The Rams already were viewed as one of the clear Super Bowl favorites before the deal, and this only hardened that idea.

Other big offseason trades included:

  • WR A.J. Brown (from Philly to New England)

  • DT Dexter Lawrence II (N.Y. Giants to Cincinnati)

  • CB Trent McDuffie (from Kansas City to the Rams)

  • WR Jaylen Waddle (from Miami to Denver)

  • WR DJ Moore (from Chicago to Buffalo).

Not coincidentally, all the teams acquiring these star players enter this season believing they're contenders.

Free agency might not have had many fireworks, but it wasn't exactly quiet either. 

Center Tyler Linderbaum left the Ravens to sign a record deal with the Raiders. Edge Trey Hendrickson went tothe Ravens from the Bengals, who tried to offset it with the signings of edge Boye Mafe and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, along with the Lawrence trade.

The Panthers made two big defensive splashes, signing edge Jaelan Phillips and linebacker Devin Lloyd. Perhaps the most shocking move was wide receiver Mike Evans leaving the Buccaneers, the only NFL team he'd known, for the 49ers. And before they landed Brown, the Patriots also handed out big money to fellow wide receiver Romeo Doubs.

Notice a trend? In a quieter year for movement at certain positions, there was a heavy emphasis on beefing up on defensive fronts (and offensive linemen to block them) and with wide receivers (along with corners to defend them).

It was still a fairly busy stretch for QB movement, with four potential starters swapping unis — Kyler Murray (from Cardinals to Vikings), Malik Willis (Packers to Dolphins), Kirk Cousins (Falcons to Raiders) and Geno Smith (Raiders to Jets). But none of those players, save for perhaps Willis, are considered more likely than not to be their respective teams' starters beyond 2026.

— Eric Edholm

Read full story at source