Rich on the Myriad Ways the Intriguing NFC Could Play Out in the 2026 NFL Season

Rich cannot stop running the NFC through his head, and the schedules are not helping him settle down.

It started with Aaron Donald. Rich wanted to know whether a return happens midseason or not at all, and the answer in the room was firmer than he expected. The chatter suggests Donald has no interest in sailing in and coasting through the end. He would be committed. He wants the grind. He will be there for training camp, and he was at the facility last week.

Camps open in Southern California this month, which means the wait is short. "We'll know," Rich said.

From there the conversation turned to the premise Rich actually wanted to fight about. People think the Rams are not going to lose a game.

"Undefeated though, come on. Pump your brakes. Pump them."

His skepticism runs straight through Seattle, because the Seahawks are the popular pick to complicate everyone's math. Rich has them dropping their opener and losing in Denver, which he considers a tall order on a short week right after playing the 49ers. Week four brings a physical Chargers team coming to hit you in the mouth. Then the 49ers. Then the short week in Denver.

Someone in the room flagged the same window from a different angle, calling the five-week stretch that includes Kansas City and Chicago very difficult.

Rich also had Seattle losing at home to Chicago, a pick he admitted he might be wrong about, plus a loss in San Francisco and a loss in the finale in Los Angeles. Four losses. Thirteen wins.

"13 and four is a hell of a record," he said. Thirteen wins puts a team squarely in the one seed conversation, and he expects the NFC West to decide both the division and the top seed, the same way it came down to a trip to San Francisco last year.

So who busts that up? Rich went to Dallas, and the Cowboys' schedule is simultaneously the argument for and against. They play Seattle. They play San Francisco. They play the Rams. Then add Green Bay, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jacksonville and Houston.

"That's a hard schedule, man," Rich said.

The upside is that a brutal slate is also a slate full of head-to-head tiebreakers. If Dallas wins the right games and finishes with enough dubs, the Cowboys are in the one seed mix too.

Then came the caveat that should be stapled to every July schedule take. "You can look at everybody's schedule and go, oh, they're finished," Rich said. "That's how I feel every time we pop one of these schedules up. I'm like, well, that's kind of tough, too."

He is not in a rush for any of it, either, which put him at odds with the room. One voice wanted the season here as fast as possible. Rich pushed back on principle. Time is already moving too fast in real life. September will get here when it gets here.

The lone exception he made was worth the whole segment. The only thing Rich wants slowed down is LeBron James trolling Chris on Instagram.