The 2026 NFL schedule has been released, featuring creative schedule release videos from various teams. The Cowboys produced a cinematic spoof titled 'Tyler Takeover,' showcasing offensive linemen discussing their upcoming opponents with humor.
Key points
2026 NFL schedule released with creative team videos
Cowboys produced a cinematic spoof called 'Tyler Takeover'
Video features offensive linemen discussing opponents humorously
Teams varied in production value and creativity
Players had artistic freedom in their performances
Dallas Cowboys
The 2026 NFL schedule has been released, and with it, this year's batch of schedule release videos. The videos have quickly become an eagerly-awaited tradition, with each team's social media department pulling out the stops and putting their own creative spin on the announcement.
As always, some teams went all-in with high production value, hired celebrities, and loads of tongue-in-cheek inside jokes made at their opponents' expense. Other teams kept it more bare-bones and simple.
The Cowboys went rather cinematic, putting together an eight-minute spy spoof called "Tyler Takeover." In it, offensive linemen Tyler Smith, Tyler Guyton, and Tyler Booker conduct a secret meeting inside a bunker (buried underneath team headquarters) to discuss the upcoming schedule. As they learn each week's opponent, they also reveal that they have had a fellow Tyler working undercover within that team's organization on a covert mission.
The Tylers throw themselves into their performances with some decent acting skills and comedic chops. According to Joe Hoyt of AllCity DLLS, the trio was "given a script to go off," but Smith explained that he and his fellow Tylers had "complete control" and "maximum artistic freedom."
The result is an enjoyable (if perhaps overly long) video with some funny moments and clever bits... and even a few well-placed surprises.
Other teams went in different directions with their videos. Part of the fun is to see not only how creative other organizations went, but also to see whose social media crews took the opportunity to make a little fun or do some roasting. (The 49ers' electrical substation and the Cowboys' lack of curtains were popular punchlines this year; the Mike Vrabel/Dianna Russini scandal didn't get nearly as much mention as some had predicted.)
Here's a look at how each of the Cowboys' 2026 opponents revealed their schedules and their meeting with Dallas.
Q&A
What is the theme of the Cowboys' 2026 schedule release video?
The Cowboys' video is themed 'Tyler Takeover,' featuring offensive linemen in a spy spoof discussing their upcoming schedule.
Who are the offensive linemen featured in the Cowboys' schedule release video?
The featured offensive linemen are Tyler Smith, Tyler Guyton, and Tyler Booker.
How do the Cowboys' schedule release videos compare to other teams?
The Cowboys' video is more cinematic and elaborate compared to some teams that opted for simpler presentations.
What creative freedom did the Cowboys' players have in their video?
The players had 'complete control' and 'maximum artistic freedom' over their performances in the video.
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Jameis Winston is funny. Jameis Winston going off-the-cuff while interacting with fans is even better. Throw in a beret and a heavy-handed attempt at a sometimes-French-sometimes-Italian accent, and it's admittedly quite entertaining. The Giants sent the quarterback into the city to play Pictionary with passersby, each of his drawings meant to represent one of the team's upcoming opponents. Winston's Cowboys doodle isn't highlighted in the four-minute clip, but it is shown at the end in a scroll of the entire season's slate.
Running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who goes by Bill, fills in as "The Science Guy" at a science fair and uses actual science experiments to help reveal the Commanders' opponents. Clad in lab coat and splash goggles, he drops eggs from height (Eagles), shows bacterial growth in petri dishes (Giants), and blasts open a diet Coca-Cola bottle (Falcons). But there are some shots delivered, too: taking the Giants to task with a geography joke (from last season's Hard Knocks) and ripping the Cowboys for the glare inside AT&T Stadium via a sunscreen experiment.
Sometimes simpler is better. The Ravens sent both their mascot and wide receiver Zay Flowers to crash the wedding (just last weekend!) of two of the team's superfans and had a camera crew in tow as the surprise unfolded. Watching real people's real reactions to something awesome happening right in front of them makes for a fun video. Flowers gives Ravens tickets to everyone at the reception, and the schedule of games rolls, end-credits style, over a montage of wedding photos.
The Texans invite former linebacker Brian Cushing to come audition to reveal the 2026 schedule one week at a time, encouraging him to get more amped up as he goes. By the end, he's battered, bruised, covered in blood, and screaming at the camera. At the end, some of Cushing's "other auditions" are shown, including for "Step Brothers," "Zoolander," and "The Notebook."
Comedian Bert Kreischer stars in this "Baywatch" spoof, teaming up with Bucs offensive lineman Cody Mauch and tight end Ko Kieft to patrol the beaches of Tampa Bay for captain Baker Mayfield. It's mainly three minutes of watching Kreischer running in slo-mo without a shirt on and messing with tourists who represent the various opposing teams. Yeah, for the Cowboys, it's another sun-in-my-eyes joke.
This one is set in an arcade, with stop-motion figurines of Jordan Love, Micah Parsons, Tucker Kraft, and Josh Jacobs compting in challenges set before them by "The Gamemaster," who turns out to be Packers legend Clay Matthews. Lots of cheese jokes, a reference to head coach Matt LaFleur's infamous "hot piss" quote from 2021, and the injured Parsons is in a motorized scooter for the first half of the video. The schedule itself isn't revealed until the very end. Meh. Maybe it's all far more entertaining for Green Bay fans.
Good heavens, 14 minutes?!? Of Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Jordan Mailata, Jihaad Campbell, and Jordan Davis sitting around a conference table opening envelopes one by one to reveal the schedule??? Mailata guesses that Philly will wear their Kelly green uniforms at home for Week 7's Monday night game against the Cowboys, Barkley talks about the extra motivation that comes with playing in Dallas on Thanksgiving... and Hurts looks as thoroughly uninterested in all of it as he does with everything else.
The Cardinals combined A.I. and a group Zoom meeting of NFL mascots for their video, and it is getting universally trashed as being completely unimaginative and totally cringey. It's not even so-bad-it's-funny; it's just plain bad. There are some attempts at shots taken with some of the mascots and their virtual backgrounds; Rowdy's features framed photos on the wall of Stephen A. Smith and Post Malone. Okay, Cards, sick burn.
The Colts used "The Simpsons" to perfection for their video, mixing actual clips from the series, newly animated scenes, and a bunch of clever Easter eggs to go through the team's 2026 schedule week by week. Maybe the best gag is the team's blatant acknowledgment of last year's debacle that got their schedule release video taken down. Week 9 is previewed with a clip from the show's Season 8 where Homer reveals he has always wanted to own the Dallas Cowboys.
Week 10: San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers honor their 80th anniversary with a three-minute-long camera move through the decades, each nostalgiacally represented by a different room inside one of the Painted Ladies, the famous Victorian homes on Steiner Street in San Francisco. The Cowboys show up, coincidentally, in the '80s room, where the jerseys of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Dwight Clark hang next to a poster of "The Catch."
The Titans, kings of the man-on-the-street video, go back to that well here, finding unsuspecting passersby in Nashville to play the doppelgÀnger game for people associated with their 2026 opponents. Some are fair facsimiles: "Big Dom" for the Eagles, "Fernando Mendoza" for the Raiders. Some are funny for how far off they are: "Myles Garrett" for the Browns or "Trevor Lawrence" for the Jaguars. But the random old guy with white hair who is supposedly mistaken for Jerry Jones just falls flat.
The world champs produced a world-class fake perfume ad, for a fragrance created to "capture the essence of a winner." But the video also spotlights what the cologne of each of their opponents would smell like. The smarmy Cowboys fan is wearing "Nostalgia '96." The whole thing is exceptionally well done and very funny. Bonus points for spot-on cameos by Marshawn Lynch, Josh Lucas, and Joel McHale.
A "Napoleon Dynamite"-themed video could have felt about 20 years too late, but the Rams pull it off nicely. This one is packed with whip-smart jabs at each of their opponents; the Cowboys get an old overstuffed wallet with, alongside a tattered old photo of Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders holding the Lombardi Trophy, a business card for the Dallas Curtain Company... whose motto is "For When the Light is Too Bright." Harsh... but funny.
Week 16: Jacksonville Jaguars
Yawn. The Jaguars' entire video is two minutes of watching quarterback Trevor Lawrence get a haircut. Snippets of a barber snipping away, while the team's schedule is posted graphically, one game at a time, on the bottom of the screen. It's a great gimmick... if Lawrence actually got his signature locks lopped off. But he didn't.
