NFL 2026 Preview
Today, the Los Angeles Rams & the Seattle Seahawks
Just when you thought Les Snead and Sean McVay had exhausted their supply of Hollywood-budget plot twists, they pull off the ultimate cliffhanger.
When news broke that Aaron Donald was officially ending his retirement to sign a one-year deal, the entire landscape of the NFC shifted on its axis. After two and a half years away, watching from the outside while the fire slowly rekindled—sparked, fittingly, by a blockbuster trade for Myles Garrett that gives Los Angeles a terrifying, five-DPOY-award-winning pass-rushing tandem—Number 99 decided he wasn't quite done terrorizing opposing quarterbacks.
Suddenly, a defense that was merely supposed to be scrappy and re-tooled now boasts the most apocalyptic front line of the decade. Try blocking a line that features Donald and Garrett on the same snap without needing a team of structural engineers on the sideline.
With the band officially back together and the roster operating at maximum, absurd capacity, we have to adjust the math.
Predicted 2026 Record: 13-4
They don't just win the NFC West; they turn the division into a demolition derby. The scriptwriters didn't just write a Hollywood ending—they wrote a dynasty back into existence.
You have Mike Macdonald standing on the sideline, looking like an indie-rock bass player who secretly graduated with a degree in data analytics from an Ivy League school. He doesn’t want to coach a football team; he wants to conduct an acoustic study on how much psychological torment an offensive coordinator can endure before needing therapy. This is a franchise that has fully leaned into the strange, damp aesthetic of the Pacific Northwest, building a roster that feels less like an art installation about modern alienation.
Take Sam Darnold, for instance. Only in the current era of sports could Sam Darnold—the ultimate Rorschach test of a quarterback—end up as the existential centerpiece of a team in Seattle. It is impossible to evaluate him objectively because we have spent the last seven years treating his career like a serialized television show where the writers keep changing the network. He is simultaneously capable of throwing three touchdown passes that make you think he’s a misunderstood genius and two interceptions that remind you of every bad decision you made in your twenties.
Macdonald’s defense is the real anchor of this entire enterprise, though. With Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence crashing the pocket, it’s a scheme designed to make opposing quarterbacks feel like they are trapped inside a Kafka novel where every third-down conversion requires solving a complex mathematical proof. They want to suffocate you slowly, methodically, and without any of the high-fructose corn syrup excitement of the Pete Carroll years.
Predicted 2026 Record: 9-8
They will hover right around the median of human achievement, winning just enough games to make you think they are brilliant while losing just enough to remind you that uncertainty is the only true constant in the universe.
Tomorrow, we will present the first rankings for the upcoming season. These season previews were compiled by using a combination of predictions around the web, so don't expect our rankings to necessarily line up with what we have said over the last few weeks. We are large, we contain multitudes...etc.