The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers are set to open the 2026 NFL season in a historic matchup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n
The NFC West showdown will take place Thursday, Sept. 10 and the squads are taking two vastly different approaches to the overseas opener. <\/p>\n
Rams head coach Sean McVay wants his team to spend as little time overseas for the NFL opener as possible. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
The Rams have decided to arrive in Australia only the day before the game, just like the team did with their international game last season where they defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. LA will also depart from Australia immediately following the game. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the 49ers have opted to arrive a week before the season opener so players and coaches can adjust to the 17-hour time difference. <\/p>\n
ESPN insider Dan Graziano was the first to report the news<\/a>. <\/p>\n There\u2019s no right or wrong approach to the overseas matchup, but the losing team will certainly face scrutiny over their decision. <\/p>\n 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is expected to be ready for the season opener after being involved in a scary car crash in July. AP<\/p>\n The NFC West arguably features three of the best NFL coaches in the league, including Rams\u2019 Sean McVay, 49ers\u2019 Kyle Shanahan, and Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks. <\/p>\n Now, McVay and Shanahan will put their talents to the test in what\u2019s poised to be one of the best matchups of the 2026 season. <\/p>\n Rams training camp has been nothing short of exciting with new addition Myles Garrett on the field. The ongoing rumors surrounding Aaron Donald\u2019s return have only heated up after the Rams held a \u201ctryout\u201d <\/a>for the three-time Defensive Player of the Year Wednesday.<\/p>\n As for the 49ers, training camp was headlined by Shanahan\u2019s horrific car accident<\/a>, which caused the San Francisco head coach to sustain multiple injuries. While Shanahan is on the mend, several players have already been sidelined with the team finishing Wednesday\u2019s practice without a whopping 20 players<\/a>. <\/p>\n The NFC West teams have experienced very contrary summers, but either the Rams or 49ers will come out swinging to kick off the 2026 NFL season. <\/p>\n Kyle Shanahan has been limited for the start of 49ers training camp as he recovers from injuries he sustained in a scary car crash. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n What time does Rams vs. 49ers Australia opener start? <\/p>\n The matchup kicks off at 10:35 a.m. AEST on Friday, Sept. 11. For fans watching from home, the matchup will take place Thursday, Sept. 10 at 5:35 p.m. PT. <\/p>\n The overseas opener will stream live on Netflix. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers are set to open the 2026 NFL season in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,6198,1926,1443,7,2812,1014,58,6,46492,1161,252,2624,2623,3307,9],"class_list":["post-965554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-australia","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-football","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-nfl","tag-northern-california","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers","tag-sean-mcvay","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117047112710703295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}