2025 NFL season


The 2025 NFL season is the 106th season of the National Football League. The regular season began on September 4, 2025, with reigning Super Bowl champion [2025 2025 Philadelphia Eagles season|Philadelphia Eagles season|Philadelphia] defeating [2025 2025 Dallas Cowboys season|Dallas Cowboys season|Dallas] in the NFL Kickoff Game, and ended on January 4, 2026. The playoffs began on January 10, and will conclude with Super Bowl LX, the league's championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8.

Player movement

The 2025 NFL league year and trading period began on March 12. On March 10, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2025 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2024 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams are required to be under the salary cap using the "top 51" definition. On March 12, clubs were allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with players whose contracts had expired and thus became unrestricted free agents. The season's salary cap increase $23.8 million per team for a total of $279.2 million per team.

Free agency

Free agency began on March 12, 2025.

Trades

The following notable trades were made during the 2025 league year:

Retirements

Notable retirements
  • OT Terron Armstead – Five-time Pro Bowler and one-time second-team All-Pro. Played for New Orleans and Miami during his 12-year career.
  • LB Anthony Barr – Four-time Pro Bowler. Played for Minnesota and Dallas during his 10-year career.
  • QB Derek Carr – Four-time Pro Bowler. Played for Oakland/Las Vegas and New Orleans during his 11-year career.
  • WR Amari Cooper – Five-time Pro Bowler. Played for Oakland, Dallas, Cleveland, and Buffalo during his 10-year career.
  • TE Jimmy Graham – Five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro. Played for New Orleans, Seattle, Green Bay, and Chicago during his 13-year career.
  • WR Julio Jones – Seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro. Played for Atlanta, Tennessee, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia during his 13-year career.
  • LB Shaquille Leonard – Three-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro, and 2018 Defensive Rookie of the Year. Played for Indianapolis and Philadelphia during his six-year career.
  • G Zack Martin – Nine-time Pro Bowler and nine-time All-Pro. Played for Dallas during his entire 11-year career.
  • S Tyrann Mathieu – Three-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro, and Super Bowl LIV champion. Played for Arizona, Houston, Kansas City, and New Orleans during his 12-year career.
  • LB C. J. Mosley – Five-time Pro Bowler and five-time second-team All-Pro. Played for Baltimore and the New York Jets during his 11-year career.
  • OT Jason Peters – Nine-time Pro Bowler, six-time All-Pro, and Super Bowl LII champion. Played for Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, and Seattle during his 21-year career.
  • CB Patrick Peterson – Eight-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro. Played for Arizona, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh during his 13-year career.
  • C Frank Ragnow – Four-time Pro Bowler and three-time second-team All-Pro. Played for Detroit during his entire seven-year career.
  • G Brandon Scherff – Five-time Pro Bowler and one-time first-team All-Pro. Played for Washington and Jacksonville during his 10-year career.
  • OT Tyron Smith – Eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro. Played for Dallas and the New York Jets during his 14-year career.
  • DT Ndamukong Suh – Five-time Pro Bowler, five-time All-Pro, and Super Bowl LV champion. Played for Detroit, Miami, the Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia during his 13-year career.
'''Other retirements'''

Draft

The 2025 NFL draft took place at Lambeau Field and its adjacent Titletown District in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 24–26. Tennessee, by virtue of having the worst record in, held the first overall selection and selected Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward.

2025 deaths

Pro Football Hall of Fame members

; Kenny Easley : Easley played seven seasons in the NFL as a safety with the Seattle Seahawks, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. He was a five-time Pro Bowler, five-time All-Pro and NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1984. He died on November 14, age 66.
; Steve McMichael : McMichael played 15 seasons in the NFL as a defensive tackle with the New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, and Green Bay Packers, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024. He was a two-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro, and Super Bowl XX champion. He died on April 23, age 67.
; Paul Tagliabue : Tagliabue served as the commissioner of the NFL from 1989 to 2006 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020. He died on November 9, age 84.

Active personnel

;Carol Davis
;Jim Irsay
;Marshawn Kneeland
;Virginia Halas McCaskey

Rule changes

The following rule changes for the 2025 season were approved at the NFL Owners' Meeting on March 30–April 2:
  • The kickoff rules approved on a trial basis in 2024 were made permanent, with the below change:
  • Both teams will have a chance to possess the ball in overtime, aligning regular season and postseason overtime rules. Unlike in the postseason, regular season overtime will remain limited to 10 minutes.
  • Replay rules were expanded, allowing replay officials to advise on-field officials on "specific, objective aspects of a play" and to address game administration issues.
  • The "nose-wipe" gesture was added to the list of acts that will draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of 15 yards.
  • Virtual line-to-gain measurements powered by Hawk-Eye technology will be employed instead of the chain crew, who will still be used as a secondary system for first downs.
The following rule change for the 2025 season was approved at the Spring League Meeting on May 20–21:
  • Teams can declare an onside kick at any point of a game when trailing and can line up one yard closer to the opponent. Onside kicks will also be taken from the 34 yard line instead of the 35 yard line used previously.

Preseason

The Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Chargers played in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on July 31, with the Chargers beating the Lions 34–7.

Regular season

The season was played over an 18-week schedule which began on September 4. Each of the league's 32 teams played 17 games, with one bye week. The regular season ended on January 4, 2026. All games during the final weekend of the regular season consisted of intra-division games, as it has been since.
Each team played the other three teams in its own division twice, one game against each of the four teams from a division in its own conference, one game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, one game against each of the remaining two teams in its conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season, and one game against a team in another division in the other conference that also finished in the same position in their respective division the previous season.
The division pairings for 2025 included:
Highlights of the 2025 season included:
  • The NFL Kickoff Game: The season began with the Kickoff Game on September 4, 2025, with Dallas at defending Super Bowl LIX champion Philadelphia. Philadelphia won the game.
  • The NFL International Series: NFL owners voted in 2023 to increase the number of International Series games to a maximum of eight starting in 2025, but seven were scheduled this season. The first game this season was Kansas City at the Los Angeles Chargers on September 5 at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Brazil with LA Chargers winning. Minnesota at Pittsburgh was then scheduled for September 28 at Croke Park in Dublin, the first NFL regular season game held in Ireland, in which Pittsburgh won. Three games were also held in London, United Kingdom, with Minnesota at Cleveland at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 5, Denver at the New York Jets on October 12 at Tottenham, and the Los Angeles Rams at Jacksonville on October 19 at Wembley Stadium. Minnesota, Denver and the LA Rams won the games. Then, Atlanta at Indianapolis was on November 9 at Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany; that game was won by Indianapolis. Finally, Washington at Miami was held on November 16 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, marking the first NFL regular season game held in Spain. Miami won the game.
  • [NFL on NFL on Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving Day|Thanksgiving]: Three Thanksgiving Day games were held on November 27, with Green Bay at Detroit and Kansas City at Dallas in the traditional afternoon doubleheader, and [2025 2025 Cincinnati Bengals season|Cincinnati Bengals season|Cincinnati] at Baltimore as the primetime game. Green Bay, Dallas, and Cincinnati won the games. The kickoff time for Detroit's game was moved from 12:30 p.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. this season so it matches that of the early Sunday games.
  • [NFL on NFL on Christmas Day|Christmas Day|Christmas]: Christmas Day, December 25, landed on a Thursday for the first time since the league expanded from a 16–game schedule to 17 games in. Therefore, the league played Thursday Christmas games for the first time, including two afternoon contests and the regular Thursday Night Football game. Dallas, Minnesota, and Denver won the games. Prior to 2021, a Thursday Christmas Day normally fell on the final week of the regular season when the league preferred not to schedule any Thursday games that would have given teams a competitive advantage with more rest between it and the opening round of the playoffs.

Flexible scheduling rules

This was the third season of the league's flexible scheduling system that included Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and increased the amount of cross-flexing of Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox.
In March 2025, NFL owners voted to change the deadline to flex Thursday Night Football games from 28 to 21 days before kickoff. The other rules regarding TNF remain the same: only two games can be flexed between weeks 14 and 16, teams are not required to flex into TNF more than once, teams are not allowed to play more than two Thursday games on short rest during the season, and teams cannot play multiple away TNF games during the season without their approval.
The other flexible scheduling rules remained the same as in 2024. Any Monday Night Football game was allowed to be flexed between weeks 12 and 17; the league was required to announce its rescheduling no later than 12 days before the contests. For Sunday Night Football, no more than two games could be flexed between weeks 5 and 10, while any game between weeks 11 to 17 could be flexed; the league was required to give weeks 5 to 13 SNF games a 12-day notice, and weeks 14 to 17 a 6-day notice. All Week 18 games were initially listed as "TBD", with the league announcing its schedule after Week 17 games are completed.
Additionally, CBS and Fox still had the ability to protect games from being moved, either from a change to another network or a change of the Sunday afternoon time slot. When the initial season schedule was created, the two networks selected a limited number of games involving a specific number of teams from their respective conference. Otherwise, every game can be initially scheduled on any network regardless of conference. After the season starts, the two networks are allowed to protect one game each week from getting flexed.

Scheduling changes

Week 6:
Week 14:
Week 16:
  • Two games were set aside to be played on Saturday, December 20: Philadelphia–Washington and Green Bay–Chicago, with both games played on Fox. On December 2, the times for these games were set for 5:00 p.m. ET and 8:20 p.m. ET, respectively.
  • The New England–Baltimore game, originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS, was flexed into NBC Sunday Night Football at 8:20 p.m. ET, replacing the originally scheduled Cincinnati–Miami game, which was moved to 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS.
Week 17:
  • On December 10, the NFL announced that two games have been moved into a doubleheader on Saturday, December 27: Houston–Los Angeles Chargers at 4:30 p.m. ET on NFL Network and Baltimore–Green Bay at 8:00 p.m. ET on Peacock. The other three games that the league had the option of scheduling on Saturday, [2025 2025 Arizona Cardinals season|Arizona Cardinals season|Arizona]–Cincinnati, Seattle–Carolina, and [2025 2025 New York Giants season|New York Giants season|New York Giants]–Las Vegas, were scheduled for Sunday, December 28.
  • The New England–New York Jets game was cross-flexed from CBS to Fox, and it remained at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Week 18:
  • All Week 18 games were initially listed with a kickoff time of "TBD"; the schedule was released on December 28 following the conclusion of the Sunday games for Week 17.
  • * Two games were selected for the Saturday doubleheader on ESPN and ABC: Carolina–Tampa Bay at 4:30 p.m. ET and Seattle–San Francisco at 8:15 p.m. ET.
  • * The Baltimore–Pittsburgh game, which decided the AFC North champion, was selected as the final NBC Sunday Night Football game at 8:20 p.m. ET.
  • * All remaining games were scheduled on Sunday afternoon at either 1:00 or 4:25 p.m. ET on either CBS or Fox.

Postseason

The 2025 playoffs began with the wild card round, which ran from January 10–12, 2026, with three games that were played in each conference. The divisional round, which ran from January 17–18, had the top seed in the conference playing the lowest remaining seed; the other two remaining teams played against each other. The winners of those games advanced to the conference championship games, which were played on January 25. Super Bowl LX will be played on February 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California with the New England Patriots playing the Seattle Seahawks for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Records, milestones and notable statistics

Offseason
On April 1, the NFL announced All-America Football Conference records and statistics will be recognized in its official records. This primarily affects the two teams surviving from the AAFC's 1950 merger with the NFL: the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.
Week 1
Week 2
  • Brandon Aubrey became the first player to convert a game-tying field goal with no time remaining in regulation and a game-winning field goal with no time remaining in overtime.
  • Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery tied the record for most games in which a pair of teammates each scored a rushing touchdown, with ten. They share the record with two other duos: Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, and Hugh McElhenny and Joe Perry.
  • The Indianapolis Colts became the first team to score on each of its first ten possessions in a season. Indianapolis also became the first team in the Super Bowl era to have no punts in its first two games of a season.
Week 3
Week 4
  • Chase McLaughlin set the record for the longest field goal kicked in an outdoor stadium, at 65 yards. The previous record of 64 yards was held by Matt Prater.
  • Puka Nacua tied the record for most receptions in the first four games of a season, with 42. He shares the record with Cooper Kupp and Michael Thomas.
  • Patrick Mahomes became the youngest player to reach 250 passing touchdowns, at age 30 years, 11 days. The previous record of 30 years, 49 days was held by Dan Marino. Mahomes also became the fastest player to reach this milestone, doing so in 116 games. The previous record of 121 games was held by Aaron Rodgers.
Week 5
  • Puka Nacua set the record for most receptions in the first five games of a season, with 52. The previous record of 49 receptions was held by Cooper Kupp.
  • Jayden Daniels became the fastest player to reach 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards, doing so in 20 games. The previous record of 21 games was shared by Justin Fields, Robert Griffin III, and Lamar Jackson.
  • Emeka Egbuka became the first player with at least 25 receptions, 400 receiving yards, and five receiving touchdowns in his first five career games.
  • The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first team to win four of its first five games with game-winning scores in the final minute, and the first team with four wins by three or fewer points in its first five games.
  • The San Francisco 49ers set the record for most consecutive games without recording an interception, with their 12th such game. The previous record of 11 was held by the 2024 New York Giants.
  • The Arizona Cardinals became the first team since the NFL merger in 1970 to lose three straight games on a field goal in the game's final play.
Week 7
Week 8
  • Derrick Henry passed Walter Payton for fifth-most career rushing touchdowns.
  • Josh Allen set the record for most games with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown, with 46. The previous record of 45 was held by Cam Newton.
  • James Cook joined his brother, Dalvin Cook, to become the first set of brothers to each have a game with at least 200 rushing yards.
  • Myles Garrett set the record for most sacks before a player's 30th birthday, currently with 112.5. The previous record of 108.0 was held by Reggie White.
  • The Indianapolis Colts became the first team in the Super Bowl era to allow fewer than ten sacks and have fewer than five turnovers in its first eight games of a season.
Week 9
  • Marcedes Lewis became the oldest person to play tight end, at 41 years and 167 days old.
  • Cam Little set the record for longest field goal with a 68-yard kick. The previous record of 66 yards was held by Justin Tucker.
Week 10
Week 11
  • Josh Allen set the record for most games with at least three passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown, with ten, having previously shared the record of nine with Tom Brady and Drew Brees. Allen also set the record for most games with at least three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns, with three, having previously shared the record of two with Kordell Stewart. Allen also extended his own record with his second game of three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns.
  • Jacoby Brissett set the record for most completed passes in a game, with 47. The previous record of 45 was shared by Drew Bledsoe and Jared Goff.
  • The New York Jets set the Super Bowl era record for fewest takeaways in a team’s first ten games of a season, with one. The previous record of five was shared by four teams.
Week 12
Week 13
  • Aaron Rodgers became the fifth player to throw for over 65,000 career passing yards.
  • Josh Allen set the record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, with 76. The previous record of 75 was held by Cam Newton.
  • Christian McCaffrey tied the record for most seasons with at least 800 rushing yards and 800 receiving yards, with three. He shares the record with Marshall Faulk.
  • Trey McBride set the record for most receptions by a tight end in his first four seasons, with 309. The previous record of 301 was held by Jimmy Graham.
  • Zach Ertz passed Shannon Sharpe for fifth most career receptions by a tight end.
Week 14
  • Brandon Aubrey became the first player to kick three field goals of at least 55 yards in the same game. He also became the first player to kick three field goals of at least 60 yards in the same season.
  • Shedeur Sanders became the second rookie to have at least 350 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown in one game, joining Joe Burrow.
  • Puka Nacua set the record for most receptions in the first 40 games of a player's career, with 277. The previous record of 274 was held by Michael Thomas.
  • Jalen Hurts became the first player to commit two turnovers on the same play. Hurts threw an interception, recovered a fumble, and later lost a fumble.
Week 15
  • Trevor Lawrence became the first player to have at least five passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and at least 50 rushing yards in a game.
  • Bo Nix became the second quarterback to have 20 wins, 7,000 passing yards, and 50 passing touchdowns in his first two seasons, joining Dan Marino.
  • TreVeyon Henderson tied the record for most rushing touchdowns of at least 50 yards by a rookie, with four. He shares the record with Saquon Barkley and Lenny Moore. Henderson also tied the record for most career games with multiple rushing touchdowns of at least 50 yards, with two. He shares this record with Barkley and Chris Johnson.
Week 16
  • Trevor Lawrence became the third player to have at least ten touchdowns and no turnovers during a two-game span, joining Drew Brees and Patrick Mahomes.
  • Taysom Hill became the first player in the Super Bowl era to have 1,000 passing, rushing, and receiving yards.
  • The Los Angeles Rams became the first team to lose a game despite having at least 500 total yards of offense, at least three takeaways, and no turnovers. Such teams were previously 93–0.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers set the record for most consecutive seasons with a record of.500 or better, with 22. They shared the previous record of 21 with the 1965–1985 Dallas Cowboys.
Week 17
Week 18
  • Cam Little set the record for the longest field goal kicked in an outdoor stadium, at 67 yards. The previous record of 65 yards was held by Chase McLaughlin.
  • Myles Garrett set the record for sacks in a single season at 23.0. The previous record of 22.5 was shared by Michael Strahan and T. J. Watt.
  • Travis Kelce tied the record for most consecutive seasons with at least 75 receptions, with ten. He shares the record with Tim Brown.
  • Jason Myers set the record for most points by a kicker in a single season with 171 points. The previous record of 166 was held by David Akers.
  • Kaʻimi Fairbairn tied the record for most field goals made in a season with 44. He shares the record with Akers.
  • The Indianapolis Colts became the first team in NFL history to start 8–2 and finish with a losing record.
  • The New York Jets set the record for fewest defensive interceptions in a season, with zero. New York also set the record for fewest overall takeaways in a season, with four. The previous records of two interceptions and seven takeaways were held by the 2018 San Francisco 49ers.
  • The NFC West became the first division to have three teams win at least 12 games.
Wild Card Round
  • Josh Allen became the first player to complete at least 80% of his passes and have at least two rushing touchdowns in a playoff game.
  • Allen also set the record for most wins by a quarterback in the postseason without a without a Super Bowl appearance, with eight.
  • C. J. Stroud became the fourth starting quarterback to win a playoff game in each of his first three seasons, joining Joe Flacco, Otto Graham, and Russell Wilson.
  • The San Francisco 49ers became the first franchise to win 40 playoff games.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers became the first franchise to lose five consecutive playoff games by 10 or more points.
  • In the first four wild card games alone, the league set the record for most fourth quarter lead changes in an entire postseason, with 12. The previous record of 10 lead changes was set in 2007.
Divisional Round
  • C. J. Stroud became the first player to throw four interceptions in one half in divisional round history, and second in postseason history to do so.
  • Josh Allen set the record for most starts by a quarterback in the postseason without a Super Bowl appearance, with 15.
Conference Championship Round

Awards

All-Pro team

The following players were named first-team All-Pro by the Associated Press :

Players of the Week / Month

The following were named the top performers during the season:

Stadiums

This is scheduled to be the final season in which the Buffalo Bills will play their home games at their current Highmark Stadium. The new stadium, also to be called Highmark Stadium, is scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2026 season.

Uniforms

The NFL announced a policy change that allows teams to wear their alternate or throwback designs four times per season, up from the previous limit of three. Teams are now permitted to pair alternate helmets with non-alternate uniforms. Additionally, qualifying teams can wear alternate pants during playoff games.
For the first time, five award-winning players from the previous season will have a golden NFL emblem on their jersey collars throughout the season: Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Patrick Surtain II, Jayden Daniels and Jared Verse.

Rivalries series

During the 2025 NFL draft, Nike and the NFL announced a "Rivalries" uniform program, which featured new designs for home teams playing against a divisional opponent. AFC East and NFC West teams debut these uniforms this season. The plan was for teams to wear these uniforms at one home divisional game per season. The Arizona Cardinals were the first team to wear the Rivalries uniforms, which they did in their Week 4 match-up with the Seattle Seahawks.
The first set of "Rivalries" uniforms were unveiled on August 28.
  • Arizona: all-tan uniforms with speckled sand, red and copper accents, nicknamed "Built to Last".
  • Buffalo: all-white uniforms with silver and blue accents, nicknamed the "Cold Front".
  • Los Angeles Rams: all-midnight blue uniforms with royal blue, yellow and white accents, nicknamed the "Midnight Mode".
  • Miami: all-dark blue uniforms with aqua and orange accents, nicknamed the "Dark Waters".
  • New England: storm blue jerseys with white pants and white helmets, nicknamed the "Nor'easter".
  • New York Jets: all-Gotham green uniforms with silver and tonal grey accents, nicknamed "Gotham City Football".
  • San Francisco: all-black uniforms with red and gold accents, nicknamed "For the Faithful".
  • Seattle: wolf grey uniforms with iridescent green and navy blue accents, along with iridescent green helmets, nicknamed "12 As One".

Uniform changes

  • Buffalo announced the return of their "Standing Buffalo" throwback uniforms inspired by the team's road uniform from 1962 to 1973. They were worn for two games and for the first time since 2021.
  • Chicago announced that the alternate orange and white throwback uniforms would not be worn during the season as a tribute to Virginia Halas McCaskey, who died on February 6.
  • Cleveland announced the return of their all-brown alternate uniforms, wearing them for the first time since 2022. This time, the uniform was paired with a new alternate helmet listed below dubbed the "Alpha Dawg". This uniform was worn for three games.
  • Green Bay introduced a new throwback uniform inspired by what they wore in 1923, replacing the 1950s throwback uniform worn from 2021 to 2024. This uniform includes navy blue jerseys with dark gold numbers and dark gold stripes, tan pants and navy socks, and an alternate brown helmet listed below.
  • The Los Angeles Chargers unveiled "Charger Power" and "Super Charger" alternate uniforms for the season. The Charger Power uniform includes a gold jersey for the first time in franchise history along with gold pants, and was worn for one game. The Super Charger uniform is inspired by the Chargers' home uniform from 1988 to 2006 when the Chargers were based in San Diego, consisting of an all-navy set that includes a modernized helmet, jersey, and pants. The Super Charger uniform was worn for three games. The Chargers also added powder blue pants to its uniform rotation, a first for the team.
  • New England introduced white pants to be worn with their road jerseys. The team last wore white pants in 2017.
  • New Orleans introduced an alternate gold uniform paired with their alternate black helmet. The team last wore gold jerseys in 2002.
  • The New York Giants brought back the white vintage uniform first used during the NFL's Color Rush program after a one-season absence, and will now be worn regularly with the throwback navy blue helmets featuring the "GIANTS" wordmark. This replaced the 2024 "Century Red" throwback uniform which commemorated the franchise's 100th anniversary.
  • Pittsburgh introduced a new throwback uniform, replacing the team's previous 1970s-era throwback that was identical to the team's current uniforms but featured block numerals instead of the Futura Condensed that the team switched to in 1997. This uniform is inspired by their uniform worn during their inaugural season in 1933. The uniform features a gold jersey with black stripes and large white block letters trimmed in black on the front and large black block numbers on the back, beige pants with gold socks, and a gold helmet listed below. This uniform was worn for one game.
  • Tampa Bay introduced a white road version of their creamsicle throwback uniforms. The jerseys feature fluorescent orange numbers outlined in red, matching what the Buccaneers wore during their inaugural season in 1976, as well as fluorescent orange and red stripes on the sleeves/cuffs. The jersey is paired with the helmet and pants that the team wore with the home version of the creamsicle throwback uniforms. This uniform was worn in their home opener and a road game.
  • Tennessee switched their home jersey color from navy blue to a light "Titans blue", a design that previously served as their alternate uniform. Their Houston Oilers throwback uniforms were discontinued.
  • Washington introduced a new alternate inspired by the team's set worn in the 1980s, dubbed the "Super Bowl Era" uniforms. The set features white jerseys with burgundy numbers outlined in gold, a burgundy collar, and burgundy and gold cuffs and numbers on the sleeves, including the original nameplate font and lacking the wordmark above the numbers that was added in 2002. The pants are burgundy, which include gold and white stripes down the sides, as well as white socks with a burgundy and gold striping pattern. This uniform also includes an alternate helmet listed below. It was worn for three games.

Alternate helmets

  • Buffalo featured an alternate red helmet resembling the design worn by the team from 1984 to 2001. They wore the helmet during their final regular season game at Highmark Stadium.
  • Cleveland paired their all-brown "Alpha Dawg" alternate listed above with a brown helmet. This helmet features a matte all-brown shell, with a brown stripe between two orange stripes in the middle and an all-brown facemask. It is the first brown helmet in franchise history.
  • Green Bay paired their new 1923 throwback uniform listed above with a brown hand-painted helmet designed to emulate the vintage leather look of the NFL's earliest helmets. The brown helmets feature realistic distressing and hand-decorated leather strap with stitching effects, and with a navy face mask.
  • The Los Angeles Chargers paired the Super Charger alternate uniform listed above with a navy-blue helmet with a modernized version of the team's logo from 1991 to 2006.
  • New Orleans introduced a new white helmet that was worn with their alternate white uniforms. The helmet has a gold stripe and face mask.
  • Pittsburgh paired their new throwback uniform listed above with a gold matte helmet that has a gray facemask and a black stripe down the middle. The team's current logo is on one side of the helmet similarly to the Steelers' primary helmet. The Steelers last wore gold helmets in 2011.
  • Washington added an alternate helmet to accompany their new alternate uniform. The helmet is burgundy and displays the Commanders’ primary “W” logo on the sides, but features a gold facemask – which became a fixture on the then-Redskins’ helmets in 1978 – and the classic striping pattern that first appeared in 1972.

Patches

  • Baltimore wore a patch commemorating its 30th season.
  • Buffalo wore a patch in their first and last regular season home games this season commemorating their farewell season at Highmark Stadium.
  • Chicago will wear a patch honoring former owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, who died on February 6. The patch is shaped like a football that displays McCaskey's “VHM” initials, and it was worn for the entirety of the season.
  • Indianapolis wore a patch memorializing former owner Jim Irsay, who died on May 21, 2025.
  • Seattle announced a patch commemorating its 50th season.
  • Tampa Bay wore a patch commemorating its 50th season. There were three different versions of the team's 50th anniversary patch. The patch that was on their home jerseys were red with a white number 50, while the patch for the away jerseys were white with a red 50. Both patches had an orange and black outline on the 50, a black banner with the word “seasons” below, and the team's current “skulls and swords” logo in-between the years 1976 and 2025 on the bottom. The patch that was worn with both of the team's throwback jerseys was white with the numbers being creamsicle and having a red outline. The banner in the middle was red instead of black, and the logo on the bottom used the “Bucco Bruce” logo.

Media

National

Linear television

This will be the third season under 11-year U.S. media rights agreements with CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN family of networks along with its Spanish counterparts Fox Deportes, Telemundo Deportes, and ESPN Deportes. Under these linear television rights:
  • Sunday afternoon games are split between CBS and Fox. Both networks will continue to carry the Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC packages, respectively. When the initial schedule is created, CBS and Fox will be able to specify a limited amount of games involving teams from their respective conference that they want to air, but otherwise the league was free to schedule games regardless of conference. Each network is scheduled to air ten Sunday doubleheaders, with both networks airing one in Weeks 15 and 18. Fox also acquired the rights to air a Saturday doubleheader in Week 16 this season, which breaks the single season record for the most doubleheaders by a network at 11. On Thanksgiving, Fox will have the early Detroit game and CBS will have the late Dallas game.
  • NBC will continue to air Sunday Night Football, the NFL Kickoff Game, and the primetime Thanksgiving game.
  • ESPN will continue to produce Monday Night Football and the doubleheader on the last Saturday of the season. This season, ESPN will air two MNF traditional doubleheaders and two "split doubleheaders" in which ESPN and ABC will air separate games simultaneously. 11 MNF games and the Saturday doubleheader will be ESPN/ABC simulcasts. 12 games will also feature the alternative Manningcast on ESPN2. An alternate broadcast of the Week 14 MNF game will air on ESPN2, Disney Channel, and Disney XD as Monsters Funday Football that will use the league's player tracking data to render a live animated version of the game portrayed by Monsters, Inc. characters.
  • NFL Network will air all International Series games in Europe and the Week 17 Saturday afternoon game.

Streaming

  • This will be the fourth year of a 12-year deal with Amazon Prime Video and Twitch to exclusively stream Thursday Night Football. This will also be the third season that Prime Video/Twitch will stream the game on the Friday after Thanksgiving under the title Black Friday Football.
  • Peacock will simulcast NBC's games. This will also be the third season in a six-year deal that the platform will exclusively stream one regular season game, with this year's contest being the Week 17 Saturday night game. Peacock will also produce two alternative casts this season: one will be of NBC's Thanksgiving game that will use the league's player tracking data to render a live version of the game using elements of the Madden 26 video game, and the second will be of the Week 14 SNF game as Reality Hot Seat featuring reality TV celebrities commenting on the game.
  • ESPN's new direct-to-consumer streaming service will simulcast all ESPN-produced games, as well as all 12 Manningcasts and Monsters Funday Football. This was also to be the fourth year of a 12-year deal that the platform exclusively streams one regular season game under the ESPN+ branding, which was set to the second game of a MNF doubleheader in Week 7. However, that game was moved to ESPN as noted above.
  • Paramount+ will simulcast in market and national CBS games.
  • Fox One will simulcast in market and national Fox games. Additionally, after streaming Super Bowl LIX, Fox announced that Tubi would simulcast the network's Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit.
  • Netflix will exclusively stream two Christmas Day games in 2025, in its second year of a three-year deal.
  • This will be the third season out of a seven-year deal that the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market sports package will stream on YouTube TV, as well as on YouTube's Primetime Channels service as a standalone subscription option. Additionally under a one-year deal, both YouTube and YouTube TV will stream the International Series game in Brazil to a worldwide audience for free.
  • The league's streaming service NFL+ will continue to live stream in-market and national regular season and postseason games on mobile devices only, radio broadcasts for all games, most out-of-market preseason games and a live stream of NFL Network on its base tier, and replays of games along with a live stream of NFL RedZone on its premium tier.

Postseason

All four broadcast partners will air at least one Wild Card round game, with CBS and Fox airing an AFC and NFC Wild Card game, respectively. NBC will air the Sunday night game under the fifth year of its seven-year deal. ESPN/ABC will broadcast the Monday night Wild Card game, its last in a five-year deal. Fox will air a second Wild Card game this season as part of the rotation with NBC and CBS. This will also be the second postseason under a multi-year deal that Amazon Prime Video will exclusively stream a Wild Card playoff game.
This will be the third season that all four broadcast television partners air one divisional playoff game per season.
NBC will televise Super Bowl LX in the annual rotation of Super Bowl broadcasters. Under this rotation, the league awarded NBC the Super Bowl during the same years it has its Winter Olympics coverage. Super Bowl LX will join Super Bowl LVI as the second time that the game is scheduled on a date within the date range of an ongoing Olympics event.

Radio

  • Westwood One Radio has rights to air all games televised by the national partners.
  • ESPN Radio and Sports USA Radio Network has rights to air select Sunday afternoon games on its radio networks.
  • This is the fourth season of the league's five-year deal with SiriusXM to simulcast all 32 teams' local regular season and postseason broadcasts, including a wraparound show called SiriusXM NFL Sunday Drive.

Personnel changes

On March 3, Fox NFL Sunday studio analyst Jimmy Johnson announced his retirement from broadcasting. Johnson was replaced by Rob Gronkowski.
On March 26, CBS announced that J. J. Watt would replace Charles Davis as the network's No. 2 color commentator, moving from The NFL Today. Watt will work with play-by-play commentator Ian Eagle. Davis would move to the #4 team with Andrew Catalon and Jason McCourty, replacing Tiki Barber. After a trial during the 2024 season, Adam Schein became the anchor for in-game updates during CBS telecasts; the role had previously been held by a rotation of The NFL Today analysts.
On July 14, Fox added Allison Williams to its roster of NFL sideline reporters. Williams joined the #5 team with Kevin Kugler and Daryl Johnston, replacing Laura Okmin, who retired from the network.
On August 11, ESPN elevated sideline reporter Laura Rutledge to join the lead broadcast team for Monday Night Football full-time alongside Lisa Salters, who was also given a contract extension with the network. Rutledge had previously been part of ESPN's #2 broadcast team and joined Salters on the sidelines for marquee MNF games and the NFL playoffs. Replacing Rutledge on the #2 team are college football and NBA reporter Katie George and recent hire Peter Schrager.
On November 7, Fox hired Drew Brees as a game analyst. Brees replaced Mark Sanchez on the #3 team with Adam Amin, after Sanchez was arrested on October 4 following a stabbing incident in Indianapolis. Sanchez was subsequently fired by Fox.

International

  • ESPN will additionally air its slate of games in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and the Netherlands, and will air games through Disney+ in select markets in Asia and Europe.
  • In the UK and Ireland, Sky Sports will continue broadcasting games from the regular season to the Super Bowl through their dedicated Sky Sports NFL Channel, but will also broadcast games through their Sky Sports+ channels. As well as this, free-to-air Channel 5, which the NFL has an interest in network owner Paramount Skydance since 2022, will broadcast games through their main channel as well as 5Action. CBS Sports, also owned by Paramount Skydance, is the production company.
  • Fox Sports will additionally air its slate of games in Argentina, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
  • NFL Network International will air select games worldwide.

Most watched regular season games

  • Television networks include the corresponding Spanish network broadcasts through Telemundo, Universo, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, and SAP.
  • For Doubleheader regional windows, the viewership total includes all regionally-televised games on the indicated network and specific timeslot.
  • For Single game regional windows, the viewership total includes all regionally-televised games on the indicated network – both the "early" and "late" timeslots.
  • : Indicates the approximate percentage of viewers nationwide that received the featured game regionally.
  • Sources: