The record-watch season officially opened this morning, and the framing question is the fun part: which NFL records could be broken in 2026? Three of the chases got named out loud. A team rushing mark, a new long in field goal kicking, and a single-season tight end receiving record. I don't have the full six in front of me yet, so I'm going to talk about the ones with real numbers attached, because those are the ones with real history behind them.
And the history matters here. Records are not vibes. They are specific totals set by specific teams on specific afternoons, and most of the time they sit untouched for decades while everybody insists the game has changed.
What NFL records could be broken in 2026?
Here are the three marks in play, with the ledger they'd have to clear:
| Record | Holder | Mark | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-season team rushing yards | Baltimore Ravens | 3,296 | 2019 |
| Longest field goal, regular season | Justin Tucker | 66 yards | 2021 |
| Single-season tight end receiving yards | Travis Kelce | 1,416 | 2020 |
That's the wall. Now the climb.
Can a team break the NFL rushing record?
This is the hardest one on the list and it isn't close. Baltimore's 3,296 in 2019 broke a mark the 1978 Patriots had held for forty-one years, and it took a quarterback who ran for over a thousand yards himself to do it. You don't get there with a good running back. You get there with an offense that is structurally allergic to throwing the football, stays healthy at five positions, and plays with a lead in December.
Week 1 already gave us a small taste of what the chase looks like in miniature: a rookie back in San Francisco carried it 14 times Thursday night in Melbourne and tied the veteran in front of him in total touches as the Niners closed out the Rams. That's a committee. Committees don't break this record. Single-minded, borderline stubborn rushing offenses do, and there are maybe two of those in the league in any given year.
Will someone beat Justin Tucker's 66-yard field goal?
This is the one I'd actually bookmark. Tucker's 66 in Detroit in 2021 broke Matt Prater's 64 from 2013, which had broken a 63 that stood, in various forms, since 1970. That's the pattern: the longest field goal record moves in one or two yard increments, and then it doesn't move for a decade.
What's different now is the population. Kickers routinely warm up from 70 and beyond, and coaches have quietly gotten braver about the end of a half, which is where nearly every one of these records has been set. Nobody attempts a 67-yarder on second down in the third quarter. They attempt it because the clock made them. So the record doesn't need a better kicker. It needs a weird enough situation, and a season is seventeen weeks of weird situations.
Can a tight end pass Travis Kelce's 1,416 yards?
Kelce's 2020 number took down George Kittle's 1,377 from 2018, so this mark has actually moved recently, which makes it the friendliest of the three. But 1,416 requires roughly 83 yards a game across a full season from a position that also blocks, and the position's usage is trending toward more bodies, not one workhorse.
It also requires availability, which is the part nobody wants to say out loud in the second week of September. The reporting out of Atlanta has the quarterback room already adjusting around an oblique and back issue, with the backup taking first-team reps in practice, and word around New England is a receiver headed for multiple weeks after an MRI. Records die in training rooms far more often than they die on the field.
What I'm watching next
The kicking record, honestly. Team rushing needs a philosophy, tight end yardage needs a full and healthy sixteen or seventeen games, but the long field goal needs one desperate end-of-half moment with a strong-legged kicker and a coach who's had enough. I'll be watching the 50-second warnings before halftime all season like they owe me money.