America's favorite fall activity is finally back as last week's Hall of Fame Game between the 
Arizona Cardinals and the 
Carolina Panthers marked the start of the NFL preseason.
Ahead of the season, RotoWire sought to find which state is most excited about the return of NFL football. To accomplish this, we used Google Trends search interest data for "football" at the state and city level for a period running from February 3 to August 3.
We then used Google's normalized 0-100 scale to rank every state with an NFL franchise with a higher score, signaling more interest in the dataset and more excitement in the season.
For states with one team, the score is attributed to it directly. For states with multiple teams (OH, TX, FL, PA, NJ, CA), the highest-scoring city in that state was matched to whichever team's home city is closest. These are the states that are ready for some football:
Check out our college football most excited version as well.
NFL Fan Excitement Rankings for the 2026 Season
When it comes to interest in this season, last year's performance seems to matter very little. Just five playoff teams from last season appear on the list, though four additional playoff teams are superseded by other in-state teams.
The six highest ranking teams all missed the postseason and none of them finished better than 8-9. While Houston made the playoffs out of Texas, the Longhorn State's position tied for fifth on the list was driven by greater interest from Cowboys' territory. Even the top ranked playoff team, the Carolina Panthers, went just 8-9 and snuck in by winning the tiebreaker in an abnormally weak division. The AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars are the only team in the top ten to win 10 or more games in 2025.
Why Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons Fans Rank Highest
Tennessee topped the list despite the 
Titans tying for the league's worst record two years in a row with consecutive 3-14 seasons. 2025 first overall pick Cam Ward showed flashes of promise last season but still ranked towards the bottom of the league in most conventional and advanced passing statistics.
The Titans signed Wan'Dale Robinson from the Giants and drafted Carnell Tate fourth overall out of Ohio State to upgrade the receiving corps around Ward while completely overhauling the coaching staff.
Robert Salah was brought in to lead the team flanked by a pair of experienced coordinators in Brian Daboll and Gus Bradley. All three men have prior stints as head coaches in the league and Tennessee is banking on that experience to turn the team around after Brian Callahan's disastrous 23 game tenure.
Theo GremmingerSee Theo's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Ian HartitzSee Ian's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Jagger MaySee Jagger's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Jim CoventrySee Jim's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Jeff EricksonSee Jeff's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Jerry DonabedianSee Jerry's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsRotoWire Analyst
Mario PuigSee Mario's personal rankings, tiers, and draft targets.View RankingsGeorgia was the only other state with an NFL team in the dataset to achieve a score above 70. The Peach State has long been football crazed and currently boasts the highest per capita rate of NFL players produced by state per league data.
The 
Falcons have not made the playoffs since 2017 but that does not appear to have slowed interest in the team, especially after they ended the season on a four-game winning streak. Atlanta also went through offseason staff changes with franchise legend Matt Ryan taking over as president of football and Kevin Stefanski joining as head coach after his departure from Cleveland. Additionally, the team signed Tua Tagovailoa from Miami to give them another option at quarterback as 2024 first round pick Michael Penix Jr. recovers from an ACL injury suffered in Week 11.
Ohio's Tale of Two Cities
The top multi-team state in the rankings, Ohio's two NFL franchises are trending in different directions. Oddsmakers expect the 
Cincinnati Bengals to be one of the league's most improved teams with Joe Burrow back healthy under center. DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Bengals over/under win total at 10.5 games, in line with their performance in Burrow's healthy years but a big step up from last year's 6-11 record when he only played in eight games.
Meanwhile, the 
Cleveland Browns still lack a clear answer at quarterback and traded Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Rams as they attempt to rebuild once again. Given these divergent paths it makes sense that the Bengals generated more interest based on city score.
Intrigue Around NFC East Winner High
The NFC East stands out as the only division to place all four of its teams on the list, though this is partially because of the tie from the Giants and Jets sharing a stadium (this is also the only thing keeping the AFC East from joining the AFC West as the lone division with zero teams on the list). Long one of the league's most discussed divisions due to the history and market size of its teams, the NFC East appears more stable than usual heading into this season.
Last year, the 
Philadelphia Eagles became the first repeat winner of the division since 2004 and DraftKings lists them at +115 favorites to make it three in a row. DraftKings odds also reflect the expectation that the teams will finish in the exact same order as last year, the only division in football where this is the case (in fact a different team than last season's winner stands as the betting favorite in every other division).
However, despite the Eagles recent divisional success that includes winning the Super Bowl two years ago, Cowboys and Commanders fans scored higher based on search interest data.
How Hope and Team Turnarounds Fuel NFL Fan Excitement
The NFC South and AFC South were the two divisions to land three teams in the rankings with both placing two teams in the top 5 and seeing their third highest scoring team rank ahead of the NFC East's second rated team. Overall, 10 of the 16 ranked teams hail from the NFC with the West showing less interest across both conferences. California is the only state on the list wholly in the Mountain or Pacific time zones and the 49ers are the sole NFC West representatives.
Notably, several of the league's top teams are missing from the list including reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle and their title game opponent New England. Other prominent omissions include the AFC's top seed Denver as well as teams like Kansas City, Buffalo and Green Bay with a strong history of recent success. A few buzzworthy squads like the Rams and Pittsburgh were also overshadowed by other in-state teams.
But in a league that sells itself on the ability of franchises to make drastic turnarounds overnight, hope seemingly generates interest just as well as sustained success.
