Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL against the Chargers in December.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL against the Chargers in December.Reed Hoffmann/AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann
The NFL schedule isn’t just a grid of 272 games spit out by a computer. It’s made by humans, and is a reflection of the thoughts and desires of all the stakeholders involved — league executives, broadcast partners, and the teams.
The 2026 schedule was released Thursday night. Here’s what it is telling us:
▪ There’s not much concern about Patrick Mahomes being ready for Week 1**,** with the Chiefs playing their first two games in primetime — Monday night against the Broncos and Sunday night against the Colts, both at home. Mahomes tore his ACL in December, and the Chiefs signed Justin Fields as a safety net, but Chiefs general manager Brett Veach recently said Mahomes is “way ahead of schedule” with his rehab.
“We didn’t know anything more than you did, but we are certainly hoping Patrick would be back Week 1,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president, media distribution. “We went into the year planning to play the Chiefs in the same number of [TV] windows.”
▪ Also not much concern that Aaron Rodgers hasn’t signed with the Steelers yet, nor that they won’t be as competitive with Mike McCarthy replacing Mike Tomlin. The Steelers are locked in for the Black Friday game against the Broncos, are scheduled for four other primetime games, and were chosen as the Saints’ opponent for the first game in Paris.
Happy Birthday @JaxsonDart!!! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/q7ALt03qw0
— New York Giants (@Giants) May 13, 2026
▪ The Giants are expected to be interesting, but not good. With marketable young players in Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo, and a high profile new coach in John Harbaugh, the Giants will open the season with two straight primetime games, Sunday night against the Cowboys and Monday night at the Rams. But the Giants, 13-38 the last three years, only have two more primetime games the rest of the season, and one of them (Week 16) can get flexed.
▪ No one cares about putting bad teams on TV anymore. Within the last decade, the NFL removed the rule that each team is guaranteed one national TV game per year. Now, the league and the broadcasters aren’t shy that they don’t want bad teams and bad quarterbacks on their airwaves.
Five teams aren’t scheduled to have any primetime games this year — the Jets, Raiders, Cardinals, Dolphins, and Titans. It’s the Dolphins’ first time with no night games since 2008, and the Jets’ since 2007.
But if one of those teams becomes a surprise contender, “That’s what flexible scheduling is for,” said Mike North, NFL vice president, broadcasting planning.
▪ The NFL wants to dominate your holidays. It already rules Thanksgiving Thursday with three games, and this year the league scheduled three matchups that should bring monster TV ratings: Bears-Lions, Cowboys-Eagles, and Chiefs-Bills. The league is once again doing a Black Friday game between two large fan bases, the Broncos and Steelers. And the NFL added a Thanksgiving Eve game this year that should draw a big number between the Rams and Packers.
The hostile takeover of Christmas from the NBA has also been completed. The league scheduled three big games on Christmas: Bills-Broncos, Packers-Bears, and Rams-Seahawks.
▪ International games are no longer a big deal. The NFL is hosting a record nine of them in 2026, in seven countries on three continents — London (three games), Madrid, Paris, Munich, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, and Melbourne. Of the 17 teams playing internationally this year (the Jaguars play in London in consecutive weeks), only the Saints, Jaguars, and Patriots are taking a bye after their trip. The other 14 teams are playing a game the next week.
“I think it’s indicative of how our fans and our teams and our partners are treating these games now,” North said. “I don’t want to call them routine, I know they’re not, but they’re just another NFL game on the schedule.”
▪ The NFL doesn’t believe “rest disparity” is real. The Eagles and Chargers each face four opponents coming off their bye week, while the Rams and Raiders each face three. Fourteen teams, including the Patriots, don’t play any teams coming off a bye.
The league used to be hyper cognizant of rest disparity, as teams coming off a bye had about a 20 percent greater chance to win a game against a team that wasn’t coming off a bye. But North said those numbers have “flipped” in recent years. Rules now require players on bye weeks to have at least four consecutive days off, and those teams have struggled to regain their rhythm against opponents that stayed in their routine.
North pointed to the 2023 49ers, who had a minus-22 days of rest disparity but still made the Super Bowl.
“We’ve got a really robust data and analytics team here in the office, and they have been very clear with us that rest disparity is not a thing,” North said. “And have been adamant that rest disparity does not impact performance, expected win percentage, expected points scored. You certainly don’t have a competitive advantage when you’re one day, or two day, or three days more well rested. If that data suggests that there’s a ‘there’ there, we will adjust. But we’ve been very conscious, we’ve been very careful, and we’ve been very connected with our data team.”
NEW ENGLAND NUGGETS
Super Bowl rematch kicks off season
A few notes on the Patriots’ schedule:
▪ The NFL tabbed the Patriots as the Seahawks’ opponent for the Week 1 Kickoff Game, marking the first time since 2016 that the league is opening the season with a Super Bowl rematch (Broncos-Panthers). Schroeder said having that rematch with a powerhouse team such as the Patriots made the most sense.
“The Super Bowl rematch is never going to be more relevant than in Week 1,” Schroeder said. “Kickoff’s a really big [TV] window. It’s one of those places where we think we can continue to build the audience higher, and just love the idea of opening the season where we left it last year.”
But the salacious drama involving coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini did not factor into the decision to feature the Patriots, Schroeder said.
“Look, we focused on the football game and the rematch of the Super Bowl, and that alone is an incredible story,” he said. “We thought that was a really fun way for football fans, and that was our focus.”
Tom Brady will be in the booth for Fox when the Patriots host the Packers in Week 9.
Tom Brady will be in the booth for Fox when the Patriots host the Packers in Week 9.Jerome Miron/Associated Press
▪ Week 9 will see the Patriots host the Packers in a 4:25 p.m. national game that Fox and the NFL are billing as “Tom Brady’s return.” It will be Brady’s first call of a Patriots game since he began broadcasting for Fox in 2024.
▪ The Patriots will play consecutive games nine time zones apart — Week 10 in Munich against the Lions, and Week 12 in Los Angeles against the Chargers, with a bye week in between.
▪ The NFL doesn’t believe in rest disparity, but the Bills will have 10 days of rest before their crucial Week 13 game in Foxborough, with their previous game coming on Thanksgiving.
ETC.
Broadcasts all over the place
▪ Netflix is gobbling up every day but Sunday. The streamer will broadcast the Thursday game in Australia, the Wednesday game before Thanksgiving, the two Friday games on Christmas, and the Saturday game in Week 18.
▪ The NFL Network was recently bought by ESPN but will still broadcast five international games in 2026 — the three London games, plus Paris and Madrid, all at 9:30 a.m. The Patriots-Lions game in Munich will be the first European game broadcast on network TV (Fox). NBC will carry the Mexico City game as a regular Sunday Night Football offering, and CBS will broadcast the Brazil game for its 4:25 p.m. matchup in Week 3.
Noteworthy
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you’re looking for a surprise team to take a jump in 2026, look to the Browns, coming off a 5-12 season. Their schedule sets up incredibly well — the Browns travel the second-fewest air miles in 2026, with 15 games in the Eastern time zone and only two in the Central. They only have one primetime game, and they have the NFL’s easiest strength of schedule (.429). That’s the same formula that helped the Patriots jump from 4-13 to 14-3.
Some other tidbits:
▪ The Lions play their three division road games in the final four weeks of the season.
▪ The Panthers and Packers finish the season with four of five games at home.
▪ Too bad — the Raiders and Ravens don’t play this year. Their beef over Maxx Crosby will have to remain off the field.
▪ The Vikings and Steelers have become international darlings. The Vikings got London in 2022 and ′24, Ireland and London last year, and Mexico City this fall. The Steelers got the first game in Dublin last year, and now will play in the first Paris game.
▪ The Seahawks and Rams, arguably the two best teams last year, will square off in Weeks 16 and 18 this year. The Steelers and Ravens and Falcons and Bucs will also meet twice in the final four weeks.
▪ 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan isn’t thrilled about playing in Australia, particularly against a division opponent, and isn’t happy that his team didn’t get a Monday night game in Week 2 (it went to the Rams instead). But San Francisco did get three straight home games after Australia. And a league source said that the 49ers’ reward for accepting Australia was to get the Mexico City home game, which was desired by several teams.
▪ Might be a tough year for ticket sales in Arizona. The Cardinals will play five home games in the final seven weeks, when they will likely be eliminated from contention.
▪ Old standbys on the schedule: The Bears and Lions will play for the 21st time on Thanksgiving and fifth time in nine years; the Cowboys and Giants will play in Week 1 for the eighth time in 15 years; the Patriots and Dolphins will play in the regular season finale for the sixth time in 12 years.
Pet peeve
There are only five divisional matchups in Week 1 this year, down from eight last year, but it’s still too many. Week 1 games are wacky — note the Raiders’ dominant win over the Patriots last year — and divisional matchups are the most important games on the schedule.
Cowboys-Giants, Broncos-Chiefs, Packers-Vikings, Rams-49ers (in Australia), and Eagles-Commanders will each take place in Week 1, but are far too important to place in the “extended preseason” portion of the schedule.
Jets running back Breece Hall signed a new deal that includes $29 million guaranteed.
Jets running back Breece Hall signed a new deal that includes $29 million guaranteed.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
RB devaluation
Running back has become one of the least valued positions in the NFL over the past two decades due to the high injury risk, the depth of players who can play the position, and how little a running back affects wins and losses.
The only teams that should even consider paying a running back are those close to contending. The Giants learned this the hard way, accomplishing almost nothing in six years with Saquon Barkley, then watching him win a Super Bowl with the Eagles.
“You don’t want to waste carries on a bad team,” NFL Network draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said. “You want to build it up and drop the running back in.”
Yet three teams expected to be among the NFL’s worst recently made big investments. The Cardinals made Jeremiyah Love the No. 3 pick, which comes with a four-year, $53 million deal, fully guaranteed. The Jets gave Breece Hall a new three-year, $45 million contract with $29 million guaranteed, and the Dolphins signed De’Von Achane to a four-year, $68 million deal with $32 million guaranteed, per reports.
Love was probably the best player in the draft, but the Cardinals appear to be tanking in 2026 and will probably waste his rookie carries on a team that should compete for the No. 1 pick.
The Jets won three games with Hall last year, and probably won’t win many more this year due to their quarterback situation.
The Dolphins’ contract for Achane is the biggest head-scratcher. They cut or traded every star on the team, wrecked their salary cap, built a historically cheap, no-name roster with 60 minimum-salary players, are clearly tanking for 2027, yet the one guy they pay is … the running back? Make it make sense.
Perhaps the Cardinals, Jets, and Dolphins are right to invest in dynamic offensive talent, regardless of position. Or perhaps this is why they haven’t won a playoff game in a combined 50 seasons.
Former Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs listens to closing arguments during his trial at Norfolk County District Court on May 5.
Former Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs listens to closing arguments during his trial at Norfolk County District Court on May 5.Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Extra points
Now that Stefon Diggs’ legal troubles are behind him, he should have a healthy market for his services. A Maryland native, Diggs’ best fits are with one of the local teams, either the Commanders or Ravens. The Chiefs, Bears, Rams, Falcons, Chargers, and Eagles also could use another veteran receiver. The Patriots don’t appear to have any competition for A.J. Brown, but any of the above teams could be a surprise, late entrant into the trade sweepstakes after June 1, and Eagles GM Howie Roseman surely would listen … Lamar Jackson is participating in voluntary offseason workouts for the first time since becoming a starter, and the Ravens are letting him know how much they appreciate it. “I think he’s really done a great job being here, learning the new approach of the offense and the terminology,” GM Eric DeCosta told 105.7 The Fan. “And I think that if anybody has a chance to get their third MVP this year, it’s going to be Lamar Jackson.” … New Ravens coach Jesse Minter has been traveling back to Los Angeles on weekends to be with his wife and children before they move to Baltimore, then taking the red-eye back to be at work on Monday mornings, per The Athletic … The investment group led by Egon Durban is reportedly buying another large chunk of the Raiders at this week’s owners meetings in Orlando, bringing the group’s stake to about 40 percent. Mark Davis is still the principal owner but Durban will eventually take over … Alec Pierce’s $114 million contract from the Colts with $60 million guaranteed was eye-popping for a player who has never caught 50 balls or been a No. 1 receiver. It’s even more surprising given Pierce recently had ankle surgery and will be out until training camp. Every other team that considered signing him gave a collective, “Phew.” … Certainly not ideal to hear that Giants receiver Malik Nabers had a second clean-up procedure on his knee after tearing his ACL and meniscus last September. The Giants are reportedly hopeful he can return for Week 1, but that implies a lot of doubt … Deion Sanders is hoping to meet with new Browns coach Todd Monken to help him coach his son, Shedeur. “That wasn’t asked of me a year ago. I don’t understand it,” Sanders said on “The Barbershop with G. Bush” podcast. “Don’t you think you would want to talk to me to ask me what gets him going and what backs him off?” No, most teams would tell the helicopter parent to go away, or simply get rid of a backup quarterback who isn’t worth the headache.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.