- Mansoor Delane opens his pro career against Jaylen Waddle: The sixth overall pick begins his pro tenure against the Broncos‘ touted acquisition.
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Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season has finally arrived, albeit earlier than usual with action kicking off on a Wednesday. While the first slate of a new campaign can sometimes offer few juicy matchups, that’s definitely not the case this year, with plenty of potential playoff battles happening right away.
So many high-quality duels means that some of the NFL’s best stars will face off on a down-to-down basis, whether in the trenches or in coverage. Every week, this article will chronicle the best player matchups to circle as you figure out which games to watch and which box-score numbers (or analytics) to track afterward. The NFL’s most consistently accomplished players will regularly be featured, but those who continue to impress throughout the season will receive increasing mention as well.
Highlights of last season included Ja’Marr Chase vs. Patrick Surtain II, Jared Verse vs. Tristan Wirfs and Amon-Ra St. Brown vs. Cooper DeJean. Let’s kick things off with a jam-packed Week 1.
Los Angeles Rams EDGE Myles Garrett vs. San Francisco 49ers T Trent Williams
Rams-49ers is the headliner game of Week 1, a matchup that could carry season-long weight between two teams competing for the NFC West crown. This international showdown is even more interesting given Garrett’s debut as a Ram.
Garrett vs. Williams is a battle between two of the premier non-quarterbacks in the league, and two players very likely to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. When these behemoths met in Week 13 last season, Garrett got the upper hand, generating four pressures and a sack on 14 head-to-head matchups with Williams. If the Rams’ new weapon does the same, this game could very much sway in Los Angeles’ favor.
SeattleSeahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba vs. New England Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez
The 2026 season opens with the same game we witnessed just over seven months ago, where plenty of studs went head-to-head. The highlight is, yet again, Smith-Njigba vs. Gonzalez.
Smith-Njigba cemented his status as one of the sport’s premier receivers after notching a 93.2 PFF receiving grade last season, while Gonzalez’s career 89.8 PFF coverage grade is the ninth-best among qualified corners since 2023. These two young stars will face off once more after compiling 14 matchups in Super Bowl 60 — where Smith-Njigba was limited to one catch for 16 yards but charted as open six times.
Click here to access PFF's Fantasy Football Matchups tool!New England Patriots WR A.J. Brown vs. Seattle Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon
Smith-Njigba vs. Gonzalez is an encore, but Brown vs. Witherspoon is the new element interwoven into the Patriots-Seahawks rematch.
Brown turned in a down season by his standards in 2025, posting an 83.4 PFF receiving grade, 1.96 yards per route run, 3.3 yards after the catch per reception and only a 97.5 passer rating while targeted. He’ll look to get off to a strong start in New England against Witherspoon, who finished last year as the league’s highest-graded corner (90.1). Intriguingly enough, Wednesday will offer the first career showdown between Brown and Witherspoon, who have never encountered one another in a game.
HoustonTexans EDGE Danielle Hunter vs. BuffaloBills T Dion Dawkins
While Rams-49ers is a showstopper throughout a long Week 1 schedule, the best individual game on Sunday takes place in Houston. The Bills and Texans will square off with legitimate seeding implications on the line come January.
Buffalo hopes to exact revenge after falling 23-19 to the Texans in Week 12 of last year. A big reason for Houston’s victory was the play of its pass-rushers — including Hunter, who collected four pressures while lined up against Dawkins. While Dawkins actually held his own against the All-Pro with a 16.7% pressure rate, the Buffalo tackle surrendered two sacks, his most in a game all season. Getting Dawkins to neutralize the terrorizing Hunter would greatly help Joe Brady in his head-coaching debut.
Atlanta Falcons WR Drake London vs. PittsburghSteelers CB Jamel Dean
The Falcons and Steelers will meet to start the year for the second time in three seasons, taking the series to Pittsburgh. All eyes will be on Tua Tagovailoa as Atlanta’s starting quarterback, and his top weapon will have a marquee matchup.
London has been one of the league’s elite wideouts since his debut, owning the eighth-best PFF receiving grade (91.6) at the position since 2022. Meanwhile, Dean heads to Pittsburgh after allowing a 47.7 passer rating when targeted in 2025 with the Buccaneers. London should also see a fair amount of Steelers standout Joey Porter Jr. if he plays, but London vs. Dean offers extra intrigue given their intra-division familiarity. In fact, this marks the second straight Week 1 tussle between the receiver and corner.
Click here to access PFF's Fantasy Football Matchups tool!San Francisco 49ers WR Mike Evans vs. Los Angeles Rams CB Trent McDuffie
This divisional game down under isn’t worth watching for just Garrett vs. Williams: It also incorporates the debut of two longtime great players in Evans and McDuffie.
Evans is coming off his lowest-graded career season (69.8), one in which he was hampered by injury to play just 357 snaps, but he’s only two years removed from a 90.2 PFF receiving grade. Meanwhile, McDuffie collected his fourth straight campaign with at least a 74.9 overall PFF grade, helping him become the third-most valuable corner by PFF Wins Above Replacement since 2022. This will serve as the first ever Evans-McDuffie matchup in what could be a multi-year rivalry between the top-tier receiver and corner.
Kansas City Chiefs Dl Chris Jones vs. Denver Broncos G Quinn Meinerz
Broncos-Chiefs is a tremendous capstone to a robust Week 1 schedule. The reigning AFC West champions enter the hornet’s nest as Patrick Mahomes makes his return from a torn ACL, but the best warfare may be when Denver has the ball.
The Broncos’ league-best offensive line will do battle with a new-look Chiefs front, but two holdovers are Meinerz and Jones. The All-Pro Meinerz is the league’s second-highest-graded guard since 2023 and secured his best overall mark yet (89.0) last season. Analogously, Jones remained an elite pass-rusher with a 90.7 PFF pass-rush grade in 2025, even if his run defense dipped.
Meinerz has seen more of Jones than any defender over his career, accruing 104 individual matchups against the legendary defensive lineman. Over 64 pass-rushing opportunities against Meinerz, Jones has generated only three pressures, none of which turned into a sack or hit. The Chiefs star looks to turn the tide, while Meinerz hopes to continue keeping Bo Nix clean.
Baltimore Ravens EDGE Trey Hendrickson vs. IndianapolisColts T Bernhard Raimann
Jesse Minter’s head-coaching debut arrives in Indianapolis as the Ravens take on the Colts. Both teams are looking to get over the hump in 2026, and that starts with what happens between these giants in the trenches.
Hendrickson was prolific yet again in 2025, amassing 23 pressures on a 90.0 PFF pass-rush grade before being sidelined after Week 8 due to a hip/groin injury. Raimann has quietly turned into a very quality tackle, earning an 82.0-plus overall PFF grade in three straight years. Hendrickson will look for a repeat performance against Raimann in his Ravens debut after he notched two sacks and six pressures on 23 matchups vs. the Indianapolis tackle in 2023.
Denver Broncos WR Jaylen Waddle vs. Kansas City Chiefs CB Mansoor Delane
This is the second matchup highlighted that includes two players both making their debuts, and it should be a banger all night long in primetime.
Waddle landed in Denver via a blockbuster trade after five excellent years in Miami, including collecting an 85.2 PFF receiving grade in 2025. Meanwhile, Delane will play in his first NFL game after permitting just a 31.3 passer rating when targeted at LSU, a metric which helped him be named a unanimous All-American. The shifty Waddle against the sticky Delane will prove a strong litmus test for this year’s sixth overall pick.
ChicagoBears WR Luther Burden III vs. Carolina Panthers CB Mike Jackson Sr.
This showdown may lack the recognizable star power of others on this list, but it’s still a worthwhile one to be included.
Burden enters Year 2 as a pro with lofty expectations after averaging 2.34 yards per route run as a rookie, tied for seventh among receivers with 70 or more targets last season. On the other side lurks Jackson, who produced an 85.8 PFF coverage grade in 2025 after allowing 55 or more yards in just three games. How well can the burgeoning Burden perform as Chicago’s clear-cut No. 1 receiver against a shutdown corner like Jackson? Burden against Jackson (and Jaycee Horn) will be compelling all throughout Sunday.