NFL football is just about back, with the first game of the season set to take place Wednesday night between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.
This will be the first year the league pushes a game up to Wednesday to open the season, and there’s a good reason for that.
The league has another game scheduled for Thursday, with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams set to face off in Melbourne, Australia.
Jon Gruden Predicts Winner of 49ers-Rams Matchup
Ahead of the highly anticipated showdown, longtime NFL head coach and current Barstool Sports personality Jon Gruden revealed his prediction for the game.
Gruden provides breakdowns for the matchups taking place, and in the hour-plus-long video he shared Monday, he called his shot at the very end on who’s going to win the game.
“What a great matchup we have, but you gotta pick somebody,” Gruden said. “You can only have so much information. I’m gonna go with the Rams 23-20 on a late field goal to win this game. But I will admit, the 49ers are going to make this very, very difficult. It’s going to be a great game.”
We have a HUGE rivalry game on Thursday Night in the Land Down Under!
Rams vs 49ers is going to be AWESOME, check out my full preview it’s live NOW!
Watch here: https://t.co/NarhzuK0T4 pic.twitter.com/BI11Yg2k5j
— Jon Gruden (@BarstoolGruden) September 7, 2026
49ers-Rams Outlook
Both teams are expected to contend in the NFC this season, but they took very different approaches to preparing for this game.
San Francisco arrived in Melbourne last week to prepare for Thursday’s game and adjust to the time zone, while the Rams won’t arrive until one day before kickoff and plan to leave almost immediately after the game.
We’ll have to wait and see whether that makes a notable difference, but the Rams enter the game as slight 3.5-point favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
Jon Gruden Predicts Winner of 49ers-Rams Week 1 Matchup