NFL season kicks off with Super Bowl rematch

The NFL season kicks off.
(Image credit: iStock)

The 2016 NFL season kicks off Thursday, with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos taking the field in Colorado in a rematch of Super Bowl 50. Following Peyton Manning's retirement, the Broncos are debuting a new quarterback under center in Trevor Siemian, a second-year signal caller who's yet to register a single NFL career pass. They'll also have some new faces on the offensive line, which hopes to buy Siemian time in the pocket as he eases into running an NFL offense.

The Panthers, meanwhile, return last year's league MVP Cam Newton at quarterback, and are looking to avenge their championship defeat last February, when they fell to the underdog Broncos 24-10. Newton has started against the Broncos twice in his career, and was sacked a whopping 13 times total in those two games, but he'll have standout receiver Kelvin Benjamin back as a target after Benjamin lost last year to injury.

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.