The NFL’s 2026 schedule is out for all to see — 272 games spread out over 18 weeks, four continents and every day of the week from Wednesday to Monday. It’s a careful and complicated calculation of home and away that will eventually yield one Super Bowl champion.
Here are my takeaways on the 2026 NFL schedule.
It’s easy to pick on the Miami Dolphins.
The Los Angeles Chargers, perhaps the best of all NFL teams at creating viral schedule-release videos that sneak in subtle and not-so-subtle jabs at the teams they’ll be facing, got in an easy shot this year. The Dolphins were shown as an actual tank, trudging along toward a white flag, noting the wave of departures from their roster in the past year.
Miami’s schedule is even meaner. The Dolphins have a new coach, new general manager, new quarterback and a depleted roster that is projected to win 4.5 games, as low as any team in the league. Before you accuse the Dolphins of tanking — losing on purpose to secure a high draft pick in 2027 — take a close look at the final six weeks of their 2026 schedule.
Their final six opponents are the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Chargers, Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots. All six teams made the playoffs last year, four of them won playoff games and New England made it to the Super Bowl. Five of those six won at least 11 games in 2025, including the Broncos and Patriots each going 14-3.
It’s just a cruel turn by the NFL’s scheduling rotation: Each AFC East team faces the entire NFC North and AFC West, two of the best divisions in the league, and Miami’s third-place schedule did the Dolphins no favors, lining them up against the San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts.
We knew the opponents would be tough for the Dolphins, but to see the concentration of tough teams down the stretch, it will make a long season that much tougher for them to find a single win in the final six weeks of the season. That might help Miami land the No. 1 overall pick and a potential franchise quarterback, but it won’t be fun for the team or its fans getting there.
[2026 NFL Win-Loss Predictions, Analysis For Every Team]
All 32 groups have a bye week. So ideally, every staff would have one recreation the place it has that additional week to arrange for an opponent, and one week when an opponent is coming off a bye for a similar benefit.
However that is not the case in any respect.
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Chargers every play 4 video games towards groups coming off their bye week. The Eagles have that 3 times in 4 weeks between Weeks 6 and 9, and the Chargers have it 3 times in 5 weeks between Weeks 9 and 13. The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams every have three video games towards opponents coming off their bye week, whereas there are 14 NFL groups that by no means need to face an opponent coming off a bye week.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni could not look so favorably upon his staff’s 2026 schedule, which options 4 video games towards groups coming off their bye week. (Photograph by G Fiume/Getty Pictures)
We won’t anticipate a complete steadiness when it comes to uneven prep time earlier than video games — inevitably, one staff performed on a Thursday the week earlier than, one other is likely to be coming off a Monday evening on the highway. However when you’re utilizing equity as one of many essential standards in placing collectively a 272-game schedule, you should not tolerate some groups having 4 video games the place the opponent has an additional week of relaxation and preparations, and different groups (44% of the league) by no means need to cope with that after.
Two Photographs At Tremendous Bowl Groups
The primary recreation of the 2026 season — Wednesday, Sept. 9 — includes a Tremendous Bowl rematch, because the Seattle Seahawks host the Patriots.
There are 5 NFL groups unlucky sufficient to play each Tremendous Bowl groups this season. Your entire AFC West performs each groups, and the Bears not solely play each however in consecutive weeks, internet hosting the Patriots on a Thursday evening in Week 7, then going to Seattle 11 days later for a Monday evening recreation in Week 8.
Which NFL groups have essentially the most video games towards 2025 playoff groups this season? That will be the Seahawks and Broncos, with 10 every, adopted carefully by the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, Raiders, Rams, Arizona Cardinals, Patriots and Dolphins with six playoff groups every. On the different excessive, the New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals every solely need to play 5 video games towards 2025 playoff groups.
It is particularly merciless for the Raiders and Cardinals, who completed final of their divisions final yr with two of the worst data within the NFL, however nonetheless have greater than half their 2026 schedule towards groups that made the playoffs in 2025. In the meantime, the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers received their divisions and but have solely six video games every towards playoff opponents.
The league tries to keep away from too many lengthy runs of house or away video games, however three in a row is sort of unavoidable. Three groups have highway video games in three consecutive weeks — the Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chiefs — and one other 10 groups have three consecutive house video games, together with the Browns.
The NFL has 9 worldwide video games scheduled this season, and it was once the norm for groups to offset the lengthy journey forwards and backwards by scheduling their bye week instantly after the worldwide recreation. That is hardly the case in any respect in 2026. Of 18 alternatives, solely 3 times are groups taking bye weeks immediately after their world journey: The Jaguars have their bye weeks after back-to-back video games in London, the Patriots have theirs after their recreation in Munich, and the Saints have theirs after their recreation in Paris.
One other quirk is when division opponents face one another twice in shut proximity, however there is not a lot of that in 2026. The Jaguars and Tennessee Titans play in Weeks 10 and 12, and the Rams and Seahawks (maybe the most effective rivalries within the league) play in Weeks 16 and 18, placing doubtlessly a division title if not home-field benefit within the NFC playoffs on the road within the remaining three weeks of the season. These are the one two twice-in-three-weeks cases, and there are two twice-in-four-weeks quirks, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Saints taking part in in Weeks 15 and 18, and the identical for the Ravens and Steelers.
