The NFL Just Locked The Top Four 2026 Draft Picks Out Of Primetime. The Jets Were Last Shut Out In 2007.

The 2026 NFL schedule release dropped Thursday night and confirmed what the league had been signaling all week. Five teams will not play a single Thursday-, Sunday- or Monday-night game in the regular season. The Las Vegas Raiders, the New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, the Tennessee Titans and the Miami Dolphins received zero exclusive-window broadcasts. Four of those five teams hold a top-four pick from the 2026 NFL Draft. The Las Vegas Raiders selected quarterback Fernando Mendoza first overall, the New York Jets took edge rusher David Bailey second, the Arizona Cardinals went with running back Jeremiyah Love third, and the Tennessee Titans drafted wide receiver Carnell Tate fourth. The Miami Dolphins added Alabama left tackle Kadyn Proctor at pick twelve.

The New York Jets shutout is the headline embarrassment. The franchise has not gone an entire schedule without a primetime slot since 2007, when a Thanksgiving game against the Dallas Cowboys served as the only standalone window. The last clean shutout came in 1981, a season the Jets finished 10-5-1 and made the playoffs. Head coach Aaron Glenn enters his first season with three first-round picks — David Bailey at two, Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq at sixteen and Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. at thirty — and a schedule that hands him fifteen one-o'clock-Eastern kickoffs, every home game at MetLife Stadium included. The bye week falls in Week 13, the latest the Jets have waited since the league introduced byes in 1990. Bailey is the highest defensive player the team has selected since 1967.

The Las Vegas Raiders' situation is more pointed. Klint Kubiak — who served as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator during the Super Bowl LX run and who as of February became half of the tenth father-son head-coach pairing in NFL history alongside his father Gary Kubiak — inherits the consensus No. 1 quarterback of the 2026 class. Fernando Mendoza went 16-0 at Indiana and won the Heisman Trophy in December. The Las Vegas opener is in Miami against the Dolphins on a Sunday afternoon. Weeks two and three are road trips against the Los Angeles Chargers and the New Orleans Saints. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs visit Allegiant Stadium in Week 4 at 4:25 p.m. Eastern on CBS. The league does not begin flexing Sunday afternoon games into Sunday night until Week 6.

The Arizona Cardinals are in the first season under Mike LaFleur, the 39-year-old Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator who took the job after Jonathan Gannon was fired and quarterback Kyler Murray was released to the Minnesota Vikings. LaFleur is Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur's younger brother. Arizona had not gone an entire schedule without a primetime appearance in three years. The Tennessee Titans are now in their second straight shutout, the only team in the league with the streak active. New head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll inherit second-year quarterback Cam Ward, whose 1.3 percent interception rate as a rookie set a franchise record. The construction of the new Nissan Stadium next door has complicated primetime broadcast logistics — the building opens in 2027.

The Miami Dolphins are the structural outlier on the list. Miami finished 7-10 last year, four wins better than the Las Vegas Raiders, the New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals and the Tennessee Titans, all of whom went 3-14. The 7-10 mark and a 1-6 start cost Mike McDaniel his job on January 8. Decisions about a roster carrying a combined $108.3 million in 2026 cap charges for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wide receiver Tyreek Hill have flipped Miami's posture from contender to seller in a single offseason. The league office read the rebuild and pulled the plug. The Los Angeles Rams hold the most primetime games at seven; the Seattle Seahawks, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys are tied at six.

The schedule is not final. The league eliminated the rule that previously required every team to play in at least one primetime game, but it kept the flexibility to swap matchups into primetime windows after Week 5. The Las Vegas Raiders' Week 4 home game against the Kansas City Chiefs — the only afternoon slot any of the five shutout teams holds against a marquee franchise — is the most plausible early candidate if Fernando Mendoza, David Bailey or Jeremiyah Love delivers a September story the league can market. The Tennessee Titans, with home broadcasts complicated by the stadium construction, will likely remain at one o'clock Eastern for the duration. The five-team shutout is the largest the league has issued since it changed the rule. The first chance to break it arrives in Week 6.