標籤: opener

With the 2026 NFL schedule being released on Thursday, there is a lot of excitement to see which team the New York Giants will face in the season opener.

With John Harbaugh as head coach and the team’s additions in free agency and the draft, some think they can go from worst to first in the NFC East.

New York will be one of the most interesting teams of the season, and you can be sure the league will want them to have an entertaining matchup in Week 1 to kick off the season and the John Harbaugh era.

Here are the five most likely Week 1 opponents for the Giants.

RELATED: 2026 NFL Power Rankings: Evaluating the worst, best teams after the NFL Draft

On the road against the Dallas Cowboys

For the past two decades, New York opening the season against the Dallas Cowboys has been a common theme. Since 2007, the Cowboys have hosted the Giants in the opener six times, including three consecutive years from 2015 to 2017.

But the Giants haven’t started the season in Dallas since 2019, but now seems like the right time to resume this pattern. 2026 marks 10 years since the Giants’ last win in Dallas, which ironically was in Week 1. There’s no better way to launch the Harbaugh era than to get a chance to end this questionable losing streak and send a message that the franchise is headed in the right direction.

home against the tennessee titans

The Giants sweeping the Tennessee Titans would be an interesting way to start the season as Big Blue will welcome back their former head coach Brian Daboll, who is now the Titans’ offensive coordinator. In addition to Daboll, several former greats are now with Tennessee, including Van’Dale Robinson, Kor’Dale Flott and Daniel Bellinger.

This game will also be the first matchup between Cam Ward and Jackson Dart, the first two quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. These two teams started off the year against each other in Tennessee in 2022, and there’s a good chance they start the season against each other again.

home against washington commanders

This season marks the 40th anniversary of the Giants’ first Super Bowl victory. To celebrate, the NFL may have the Giants face the franchise they defeated in the NFC Championship 40 years ago to clinch their first Super Bowl berth in Washington.

Since 2008, these divisional rivals have met four times in Week 1, including last year in Washington, where the Commanders were victorious 21–6. But that was before Jackson Dart took over as the starter, and both teams have made significant roster changes since then. This matchup would see the Giants go up against Sonny Styles for the first time, who many thought they would take with the fifth overall selection, but instead they selected Arvel Reese.

On the road against the Detroit Lions

The Giants and Detroit Lions both finished last in their respective divisions in 2025, but both are among the favorites to go from worst to first in 2026. With the number of skill position players on both teams, this could turn out to be one of the most entertaining games of the opening weekend.

It will also be a big test for New York’s revamped defense and new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson to see if they can stop Jahmir Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown, as the two had 413 combined yards in the Lions’ 34-27 overtime win in Week 12 last year.

at the Seattle Seahawks for the NFL season opener

The NFL would like to pit the defending and defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks against a major opponent for the NFL season opener. Despite their losing streak over the past decade and a half, the Giants are still one of the marquee franchises in the league and are a team that many believe is on the rise now that they are led by a Super Bowl-winning coach.

It won’t be an ideal first Test for the new-look giants, but it offers a chance to pull off a big upset against the champions and build confidence for the rest of the season.

We’ll find out soon enough who Big Blue will start against in the first game of the John Harbaugh era.

RELATED: 2026 NFL QB Rankings: Where does Jackson Dart rank?

The Detroit Tigers are back at Comerica Park and it was an amazing day of baseball. The Tigers won their home opener in 2026 by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 4–0. It was an excellent pitching performance from starting pitcher Framber Valdez.

Detroit opened the scoring with a 433-foot two-run home run by starting catcher Dillon Dingler in the fourth inning. Through seven games, Dingler is the only Detroit hitter with a home run, marking his second of the 2026 MLB season. Then, Riley Green hit an RBI-single in the fifth inning, followed by another single by Javier Báez in the sixth inning.

After being defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, the Tigers’ offense bounced back in their home opener at Comerica Park. There were other opportunities for runs, as Kevin McGonigle and Kerry Carpenter hit two balls deep into the outfield during the first inning.

Meanwhile, Valdez went scoreless six with three hits, two walks and five strikeouts. The 32-year-old starter became the first pitcher since Spencer Turnbull in 2019 to throw a quality start in a home opener. Valdez is the first pitcher since Jordan Zimmerman in 2016 to do so in both the home opener and his home debut for the Tigers.

There were other milestones, such as Green’s 500th career MLB hit, becoming the 20th player in franchise history to accomplish the feat before age 26. It was a much-needed change of pace for the Tigers after being defeated by the Diamondbacks.

In fact, the Tigers had the biggest crown for a home opener at Comerica Park since 2017. Fans were given a picture-perfect day en route to their first home win of 2026.

READ MORE: MLB Insider shares update on Tarik Skubal’s future with Detroit Tigers

Austin Konensky is a sports writer at SportsNut, covering the NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA and college football. His work…More about Austin Konensky

BOSTON – Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum showed us the highest levels of recovery from an Achilles rupture, posting clips of him running again, dunking again and smiling again. He was also transparent about the physical and mental impact of this lengthy rehabilitation process, whether it was discussing his internal doubts about whether or not he should return or showing the world how terrible his ankle looked after surgery.

What Jayson Tatum’s foot looked like at the beginning vs. the end of episode 3 of “The Quiet Work”: pic.twitter.com/le4zub0Eiw

– Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) 2 March 2026

That authenticity and vulnerability continued after Tatum’s victorious homecoming at the TD Garden on Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks.

“I was feeling really anxious,” Tatum revealed after his first game in nearly 300 days. “It has taken a long time to get to this point. Many nights and days I dreamed about this moment and the anticipation of the crowd. It has been 42 and a half weeks since I played in an NBA game.”

While the six-time All-Star could have played it cool, he gave real answers to the media and didn’t deny his nervousness.

“[I’m] Just trying to get caught up in the pace and everything,” he said. “I felt like I was a step behind or moving too fast.”

To start the game, Tatum failed to make his first six attempts from the field. A few shots fell short and one miss came when the 28-year-old missed an open dunk that would have sent the home crowd into frenzy:

The TD Garden crowd nearly exploded after this dunk attempt by Jayson Tatum: pic.twitter.com/rir8iKFmwE

– Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) 7 March 2026

Clearly, Tatum still needs some time to get his feet under him (literally and figuratively). In addition to shooting, the Celtics forward moved the ball well and posted a game-high five assists in the first half. Generating those points for your teammates helped them get involved and, in turn, things started getting better.

“As soon as I relaxed a little bit, the game started to slow down,” he said.

This isn’t even an exaggeration, as Tatum made five consecutive shots after missing his first six. He even improved on his botched dunk by slamming home a missed triple from point guard Peyton Pritchard:

GO GET IT JT 🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Tf8rLI6zcE

– Boston Celtics (@celtics) 7 March 2026

In a 120–100 win for the Celtics, Tatum finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists – just three assists short of a triple-double in his first NBA action since learning to walk again. And while he didn’t have a spotless offensive night, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla didn’t care.

“When he was 100% healthy, he had missed six shots in a row before, so I don’t think it really mattered,” he said. “What I liked is just his attitude and he continued to rebound. I thought he competed on the defensive end… I think he had three assists, two rebounds before he even took his first shot.”

What Jayson Tatum’s teammates and opponents thought about his comeback

Although Tatum is still not his usual self, the Celtics were happy to see him there, cheering him on from the bench and hugging him when he left the game.

“I appreciate him being able to put himself on the line a little bit to come back and be a part of something big,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown said in the locker room. “I think that’s his mentality. I appreciate it. I know the organization appreciates it because he didn’t have to do it and nobody pressured him, but he wanted to be there.”

If it was for tonight, what would be the start for Jayson Tatum: pic.twitter.com/GqPRgXupfz

– Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) 7 March 2026

Would Tatum like being 100% away from the field in his debut? Absolutely. But he understood why this was not realistic and stressed how fortunate he felt to be eligible for the green team again.

“When you take a long time off, you’re anxious, you want it really bad,” he said. “And, obviously, I wanted to hit every shot I took. But I was just really grateful. I had a real feeling of gratitude to get back on the floor and play basketball again, and it brought me back to everything I’ve gone through over the last 10 months, and the fact that I was even able to get there today was a really big win for me.”

The next phase of Tatum’s recovery process, which isn’t really over, takes place on the road. The Celtics have three games in a row against some of the best teams in the league: the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs and defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

To call this a litmus test would be taking it lightly. However, Tatum had already played 27 minutes against the Mavericks and despite his Achilles, he was not a kid at all.

This should be a good sign for the Celtics, and a bad sign for the rest of the NBA.

Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd praised him in his postgame press conference, “The pace he came back, the way he looked, coming off a serious injury, he looked good.” “As soon as he shakes off some of the rust, he makes the Celtics a contender and they had a tough year when he was rehabbing, so to get him back, they’re going to be a team that’s going to be tough to knock out.”