On the latest edition of PFSN’s “Football Debate Club,” the crew tackled the 2026 schedule’s most-anticipated revenge game.
Ian Cummings and Jacob Infante were split on the question. Jacob’s pick was the Titans-Jets Week 1 opener in Nashville, where two recent trades and one very public callout have stacked the matchup with personal grudges. Ian went with Broncos-Patriots in Foxborough just four months after Drake Maye’s quarterback draw and a Mile High snowstorm sent New England to Super Bowl LX instead of Denver.
Denver Has a Score to Settle With New England
The AFC Championship Game on January 25 wasn’t decided on talent. It was decided on weather, an in-game injury at quarterback, and one Drake Maye QB draw that flipped the score.
The Broncos were the AFC’s No. 1 seed at 14-3, hosting at Empower Field at Mile High, and they ran into a second-half blizzard with Jarrett Stidham starting in relief of an injured Bo Nix.
New England’s defense allowed 32 yards on Denver’s five second-half drives, but the Broncos missed two field goals in the snow, and Stidham threw a back-breaking interception inside the final two minutes.
“This is a team that embarrassed you, took away your inside track to the Super Bowl,” Ian said. “First chance at reprising that goal.”
Walking into Foxborough in Week 17 puts every variable from that game back on the table. Nix back at quarterback, presumably healthy. A coaching staff that knows precisely how the Patriots smothered them in January. A roster that finished 14-3 the year before.
Both teams will likely be playing for AFC seeding by Week 17, and there’s a real possibility the No. 1 seed is on the line. That’s revenge attached to football consequences, not just bulletin-board material.
The Titans-Jets Beef Is Loud, But It’s Lower-Stakes
Jacob made a fair counterpoint that two trades between New York and Tennessee have packed Week 1 with personal grudges. Tennessee dealt cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr. to the Jets in September 2025 after just two starts, with first-year general manager Mike Borgonzi citing a culture fit issue and “habits not conducive to development.”
Brownlee, who became a starter in New York and made a game-sealing pass breakup against the Bengals, has not been quiet about returning to Nashville.
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He posted the following Instagram message after the schedule release: “Circle Week 1 on ya calendar blood bath. Yall gone feel every inch in my body boa.”
Then in February, the Jets shipped edge rusher Jermaine Johnson II to the Titans for nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat. Johnson reunites with Robert Saleh, the head coach who drafted him 26th overall in 2022.
Sweat moves from playing behind Jeffery Simmons in Tennessee to a featured role on Aaron Glenn’s defensive front. As Jacob put it, the three former players “all got a lot to prove.”
The problem isn’t the heat. The problem is the football around it. The Jets and Titans both finished 3-14 last year, tied for the league’s worst record. Week 1 between two rebuilding rosters carries plenty of personal stakes, but no playoff stakes, and Brownlee’s trash talk loses some of its edge when neither team is projected to win nine games.
The Broncos at Patriots in Week 17 is the same revenge energy attached to real football consequences, and that tilts the call.
