TC Martin

NFL Schedule Release   

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The NFL announced its 18-week schedule for the upcoming season.  As we have seen in recent years there will be some tweaks and oddities beginning on a rare opening night.  For the first time ever, the NFL will open the season with a Wednesday night game. 

 

The NFL’s 107th season begins with the league’s annual primetime kickoff game, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks host the New England Patriots at Lumen Field on Wednesday, September 9 at 5:20pm on NBC in a rematch of Super Bowl LX.  It marks the third Super Bowl rematch played on Kickoff Weekend (Kansas City-Minnesota in 1970, Carolina-Denver in 2016).

 

On Thursday, September 10 (5:35 pm on Netflix), the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will meet at Melbourne Cricket Ground in the first-ever regular-season NFL game to be played in Australia.

 

Week 1 continues on Sunday, September 13, with two games between 2025 playoff teams in the 10:00am window, as the Carolina Panthers host the Chicago Bears (FOX) and the Buffalo Bills visit the Houston Texans (CBS). The late window on Kickoff Weekend is highlighted by divisional matchups. On CBS at 1:25 pm Green Bay visits Minnesota in an NFC North showdown while FOX at 1:25 pm. features an NFC East matchup between Washington and Philadelphia.

 

Later that day, NBC’s Sunday Night Football the Dallas Cowboys visiting the New York Giants (5:20 pm) in an NFC East showdown. NBC will televise one game each Sunday night in Weeks 1-17, as well as feature Kansas City at Buffalo (5:20 pm) on Thanksgiving night and one game at 1:30 pm on Saturday, January 2, from a pool of four designated Week 17 Saturday games.

 

Kickoff Weekend concludes on Monday, September 14, with ESPN’s Monday Night Football, featuring the Denver Broncos visiting the Kansas City Chiefs (5:15 pm ESPN/ABC). ESPN will televise one game each Monday night in Weeks 1-17.

 

The 2026 NFL schedule will feature each team playing 17 regular-season games and three preseason games for the sixth consecutive year. The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The NFC will be the home conference for the 17th game in 2026.  Week 18 will conclude with 16 division games in Week 18 – three on Saturday, January 9, and 13 on Sunday, January 10.