Ranking best NFL schedule release videos. Where did Chargers, Raiders finish?

The NFL’s annual roast – otherwise known as the schedule release – took place via social media May 14 as the 2026 slate for all 32 teams became official.

Every team, as has become tradition, created a video to celebrate the occasion. All deserve praise and required hard work from scores of individuals who deserve praise. But like the game of football, some teams fared better than others, and there can only be one winner.

USA TODAY Sports ranked the top five videos from this year’s batch of videos. But first …

Honorable mentions

Four teams’ submissions were worthy of an honorable mention tag.

The Chicago Bears, for their Rome “Bob Ross” Odunze sketch. The Los Angeles Rams channeled “Napoleon Dynamite” for their bit of nostalgia. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence chopped off his patented blonde flow and that alone deserves recognition. And the Indianapolis Colts’ “Simpsons” video was impressive.

Now onto the top five.

5. Seattle Seahawks

The reigning Super Bowl champs kept the momentum going with a spoof of those oddly sultry fragrance commercials. They featured Seahawks players, Marshawn Lynch, play-by-play announcer Steve Raible and celebrity fans Josh Lucas, Joel McHale and Pierson Fode. Each fragrance referred to a different opponent and poked fun at them.

4. Los Angeles Chargers

A little low for the Chargers, who often take the top spot. But for the fourth straight season, their video existed in an alternate reality, this one in the Halo video game. The points deducted from running the same play over and over again doesn’t distract from the team’s uncanny ability to have the best burns year in and year out. And the level of dedication it takes to create this type of project is more than worthy of a top-five ranking.

3. Atlanta Falcons

Nostalgia plays when it comes to the schedule-release video, and if there’s one piece of media that is universally beloved, it’s “This is SportsCenter” commercials. All of the jokes – Matt Ryan losing his temper, a “Bijan” Robinson pronunciation mishap – hit. Kevin Stefanski plays a heck of a straightman.

2. Tennessee Titans

The man-on-the-street (Broadway, to be exact) style is back! Tennessee’s video from 2023 was one of the best schedule-release videos ever produced, and going back to the well three years later was more than appropriate. The format change – the admin approached individuals who “looked like” players of the opposing team for a certain week – was a fun wrinkle that allowed the theme to continue without it feeling too similar.

1. Las Vegas Raiders

Did Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins just become best friends?

Getting buy-in from the two quarterbacks is one thing, but to actually execute upon the “Stepbrothers” spoof is another. No notes, because this video hits all of the right ones.