One of the highlights of the offseason NFL calendar is always the NFL schedule reveal, and this year’s edition took place on Thursday. We already knew each team’s opponents in the upcoming regular season, but on Thursday we found out when exactly those matchups will take place.
The 2026 NFL schedule features a record-high of nine international games across seven countries and four continents, in addition to nine playoff rematches from last year. Of the 32 teams, 27 will be featured on primetime, with the Tennessee Titans the lone squad to be shut out of primetime contests for the second year in a row. Additionally, the Chicago Bears have the hardest strength of schedule (.550 opposing W-L percentage), while the Cleveland Browns have the easiest (.429 opposing W-L percentage). Those are just some of the top things to know following the 2026 NFL schedule release, but these are the top contests to look forward to this season.
Week 1: New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks
The last matchup of the 2025 NFL season is also the first contest of the 2026 NFL season as we’ll get a Super Bowl rematch on Wednesday, Sept. 9. This is just the third time in history that a Week 1 matchup will be a rematch of the previous season’s Super Bowl, while this will also be the 12th Super Bowl rematch in the following season all-time.
The previous year’s champion sports an 8-3 record in the rematch, as Seattle will look to follow the unveiling of its Super Bowl banner with another beatdown of the Patriots. The Seahawks won Super Bowl LX by a score of 29-13 to give them four straight wins over the Pats.
Week 2: Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills
It’s been six years since a new NFL stadium opened, but that drought ends in Week 2. The Bills will play their first regular-season home game at their new Highmark Stadium which, with a 60,108 seating capacity, will be the smallest venue in the league. Despite that, expect Bills Mafia to provide plenty of noise in a matchup of arguably the two winningest franchises without a Super Bowl championship.
No franchise in league history has more wins (615) without a Super Bowl than the Detroit Lions. Meanwhile, no franchise in NFL history has more Super Bowl appearances (four) without a championship than the Buffalo Bills.
Week 5: Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Rams
This contest will feature the past two MVP winners in 2025 recipient, Matthew Stafford, and 2024 winner, Josh Allen. It will also be the first matchup between these squads since their epic 2024 regular season game in which Los Angeles won 44-42. The 86 combined points were the second-most in any game that season as Buffalo became the first team in NFL history to score six-plus touchdowns and have zero turnovers but still come up on the losing end.
Week 12: Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams
A seemingly new tradition will debut during the 2026 NFL season, and that’s an NFL Thanksgiving Eve game. The Pack heading to L.A. is the inaugural contest, as Green Bay (82 wins) and Los Angeles (81 wins) rank fourth and sixth, respectively, in wins since 2018. Despite nearly equal footing, this series has been dominated by the Packers recently. Green Bay has won five straight versus the Rams as well as 10 of the last 11 meetings.
Week 14: Kansas City Chiefs at Cincinnati Bengals
Both AFC contenders are coming off 6-11 seasons, thanks, in part, to quarterback injuries, but those QBs have also engaged in nothing but back-and-forth affairs. When Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow have shared the same field, their last five meetings have all been decided by 3 points or fewer. Four of those matchups have seen the game-winning score come within the final five seconds, as Burrow holds the 3-2 edge over Mahomes.
Week 16: Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
Perhaps the most thrilling playoff game from last year saw Caleb Williams and Chicago mount an epic comeback to defeat Green Bay in the Wild Card Round. Chicago overcame a 21-3 halftime deficit, making the 18-point comeback its largest in the postseason since 1933.
This won’t be the first meeting of these teams since that playoff game, as the divisional rivals will also square off in Week 5. However, this late-season matchup features two things that the Week 5 contest does not. One is that it’s the same scene as that playoff game, with them meeting in Chicago for the first time since it happened. And two, and perhaps more noteworthy, is that this Week 16 game will be on Christmas Day, as this fierce rivalry kicks off an NFL Christmas Tripleheader.
Week 16: Tennessee Titans at Las Vegas Raiders
There’s only one reason why this late-season game between two teams expected to struggle warrants a spot on this list, and that reason is one… as in number one. It features the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft—Vegas’ Fernando Mendoza—facing the top overall pick in last year’s draft in Tennessee’s Cam Ward. Kirk Cousins is expected to begin the season as Las Vegas’ QB1, but if the Raiders are knocked out of contention early on as expected, then Mendoza should definitely be under center by the time this game rolls around.
Week 17: Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals
After last season’s schedule reveal, Joe Burrow publicly lamented that it wasn’t “ideal” for the Bengals to be playing in Baltimore for a fourth straight year in prime time. Apparently, the NFL was listening as it reversed course for this season.
Not only do the Bengals not have to play a primetime game when they visit Baltimore in Week 7 (1 p.m. ET kickoff), but the league flipped the script when the Ravens have to visit Cincinnati. This Week 17 game will see the Bengals hosting in primetime, as this will be a Thursday Night Football kickoff, on New Year’s Eve, no less. We’re guessing this setup is a little more “ideal” and is to Burrow’s liking.
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