7 Things We Want to See on the 2026-27 NFL Schedule

Geoff Magliocchetti May 12, 2026 Fact checked by: Matt Moreno No Comments

The 2026-27 NFL schedule is beginning to trickle out. The world knows the who and where, but here are seven things we want from the when.

The NFL is about to release its save-the-dates for America’s continued marriage to its product.

The league’s schedule for its 2026-27 season is set to be released in full on Thursday (8 p.m. ET on NFL Network & ESPN2), the latest outing in a series of de facto holidays that viewership has established over the past several years.

Dak Prescott #4 of the Dallas Cowboys during the NFL game at Allegiant Stadium on November 17, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cowboys defeated the Raiders 33-16.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Keeping up traditions, breadcrumbs for the road to Super Bowl LXI have begun to fall: Monday revealed that the season will open in familiar fashion in the form of a Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”

Tuesday, it was announced a November tilt featuring the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons in Madrid would join the list of international affairs this fall.

With the where and who accounted for, TeamFB7 has seven varying wishes concerning the “when” in time for Thursday’s official unveiling …

The Jaguars on Holiday

Throughout their spotty history, the Jacksonville Jaguars have reached some solid heights despite never appearing in a Super Bowl. They appear to be engaging in one of their more hopeful periods after posting a 13-win season, one that featured several solid breakouts from homegrown talents.

Most of the group that acquired those wins, led by the offensive battery of Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr., is back for another go at it. Jacksonville had a somewhat muted offseason and lost top rusher Travis Etienne but hopes to fully showcase Heisman winner and two-way sensation Travis Hunter after injuries ate away at his debut tour.

Now is the perfect time to break one of the more quietly dubious streaks in football: Jacksonville is the only team on the active NFL ledger that has yet to appear in a Thanksgiving Day game. Slotting them into the Cowboys’ annual date might’ve been the way to go, but the league opted for the safer option in the form of a rivalry revival with the Philadelphia Eagles. Jacksonville might still be eligible for dessert, as the Turkey Day night cap features a rotating batch of competitors.

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As the main protagonist in the NFL’s international endeavors, the Jaguars have been on holiday. Now it’s time for them to be on the holiday.

Be Giant in Moderation

“New York or Nowhere” has served as an effective motto of the schedule makers when it comes to the New York Giants. Since their last Super Bowl win in 2012, the Giants have had 51 games kick off after 7 p.m. ET, 10th most in the league in that span. However, the Giants are 13-38 in such showings, the worst win percentage on that same list.

Complaining about a New York-affiliated squad dominating the national landscape in any sport is a futile exercise. But the Giants’ continued futility has frustrated some fans, even some of their own, when it comes to continued nationally-televised appearances. The league has shown restraint in the form of limiting exposure to the equally woebegone New York Jets: in the same span, the Jets have made 35 appearances, tied for eighth-fewest on the league ledgers.

This time around, there will be undeniable temptation to invest heavily in the Giants’ schedule stock, thanks to the arrival of head coach John Harbaugh and the potential promise of new offensive triumvirate Jaxson Dart, Malik Nabers, and Cam Skattebo. The hype train has officially left the station, as at least one half of the Giants’ annual Cowboy couple takes its usual posting in the peacock network’s famed Sunday night slot.

But the Giants should have to earn their place back among the league’s elite in television. Flexible scheduling should work in Big Blue’s favor if it’s truly back among the playoff conversation, anyway, so the league should be able to control its Giant impulses.

Chief Concerns

Equally intriguing is what the league will do with the Kansas City Chiefs as they seek revenge for last year’s lack of postseason. Kansas City led the league with seven national television appearances last year before troubles both within and beyond their control kept them off the bracket.

The continued Travis Kelce collaboration with Taylor Swift’s legions should keep the numbers up no matter what times are attached to their dates. In addition to re-signing Kelce, the Chiefs also made some big offseason swings in signing newly-minted Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III and trading up to select touted cornerback Mansoor Delane at the NFL Draft.

But the league should use caution with the early portions of the Chiefs’ schedule considering the continued rehab of franchise face and QB Patrick Mahomes. In a perfect world, the Chiefs would also have to re-earn the national trust though the numbers are too great to ignore for any significant period. One can hope, however, that the league keeps the Chiefs out of truly prime parts of the schedule at least in the early going while Mahomes gets his footing back.

Of course, it’s all null and void in the very real possibility that Mahomes is ready for Week 1, but perhaps the football world could use a break from constant Kansas City activity … even if ratings suggest they can’t get enough of it (i.e. last year’s Thanksgiving duel in Dallas).

More For the Final Four

Last season, the Chiefs and Cowboys united to appear in 13 exclusive slots and nary a playoff showing between them. The eventual Super Bowl finalists of New England and Seattle had a combined seven, with runner-ups Denver and the Los Angeles Rams putting up a combined eight.

The flocking to the Chiefs and Cowboys can’t be understated (again, that relatively meaningless in hindsight Thanksgiving showdown lived up to its undeniable ratings hype) but it would be nice to see the Patriots and Seahawks be rewarded for their respective successes.

Seattle is already in the throes of an unusual opener (which is scheduled for Wednesday rather than the traditional Thursday due to the NFL’s international desires) while New England’s offseason has been defined by other … affairs. Prominent placement on the schedule, even if it means late Sunday slots (certainly a great place for Seattle considering its time zone) could help alleviate such ordeals and expose the league’s potential new overlords to more eyes.

Giving the Rams more time to shine also shouldn’t be a problem considering Los Angeles is hosting Super Bowl LXI while it’d be worth giving Denver a great spotlight so fans know exactly who’s on the defense they keep selecting so highly in their respective fantasy drafts.

Smash the First Table

The NFL could perhaps use a little work in generating stadium reverence seen in its collegiate counterpart as well as baseball.

The truth of the matter is that could be a little hard to do that when most new stadiums often draw audible groans for their indoor nature that seem more intent on hosting a single Super Bowl than incorporating the elements into a game whose previous champions have overcome divine intervention to earn their glory (i.e. the Ice Bowl).

That’s what makes the Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium reboot opening so unique: of the new stadiums currently under development (one of seven), only Western New York’s will be an open-air affair. That should make the Bills a relative lock for a high-profile game on opening weekend (the near-annual showdown against the Chiefs would’ve been perfect if not for the Mahomes uncertainty) and it should also be primarily emphasized during the final primetime portions of the regular seasons. 

New Highmark Stadium is part of a beloved dying breed among gridiron enthusiasts. It’s arrival should be cherished and celebrated properly.

Christmas Creativity

Perhaps the newest flagship sign of the stranglehold the NFL continues to hold on the American imagination (beyond the calendar chaos) is its Grinch-style robbery of the NBA’s Christmas Day residency. Last year’s six-game slate featured but one eventual playoff team (the nightcap’s Denver Broncos against the aforementioned, eliminated Chiefs) yet each part of the streamed triple feature drew over 20 million viewers, dunking on their Association counterparts’ five-game output.

Simply put, it won’t take much to drag fans away from the celebrations and toward their televisions as long as the shield is attached. Even so, it wouldn’t hurt to find some sort of assurance that the games carry something meaningful on such a monumental day. It’s obviously hard to do that (the divisional Christmas trio of Dallas-Washington/Detroit-Minnesota/Denver-Kansas City obviously looked like an early present at this time last year) but long-term implications should play a role in shaping the schedule.

One way to do that would probably be to unite the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future, such as giving Aaron Rodgers a farewell tour with the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the surging Patriots. The love ’em or hate ’em nature of the Patriots could also help establish some sort of holiday residency, similar to what the Cowboys and Lions have built on the fourth Thursday in November. Christmas could also showcase the NFL’s hopeful new holiday traditions, such as the Las Vegas Raiders armed with consecutive early picks Ashton Jeanty and Fernando Mendoza.

Creating the perfect holiday slate will never be an exact science, especially when planning for the final stages of the year (perhaps the one advantage the NBA still holds on the NFL in terms of audience-generating). There are, however, more precise ways to do it, so here’s hoping that the league creates some scintillating stocking stuffers no matter how the schedule plays out.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba #11 of the Seattle Seahawks completes a one-handed catch during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on November 16, 2025 in Inglewood, California.
Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images

Sunday Amass

The NFL has nearly completed its unspoken yet apparent quest to dominate every month of the calendar (only the summer months of June and July remain mostly unconquered thanks to the 24/7 nature of draft season).

Such an endeavor has now moved on to a day-by-day basis: one of the more anticipated attachments of this schedule release day will be who gets the rare Wednesday night spots. It has already been confirmed the first leg of the Seattle Seahawks’ championship defense will be staged on a Wednesday (with an international game to follow the day after) while the league is also reportedly planning a Thanksgiving appetizer before the Cowboys, Detroit Lions, and an unnamed third games take their usual postings. 

Progress is progress and there’s no use in arguing it. People are going to watch and it’d be silly of the NFL not to capitalize on that. Having said that, the league shouldn’t forget its roots in the Sunday slots and leave plenty of strong offerings to those portions on the road ahead.

One of the reasons why the league has become such a behemoth has been its ability to maintain the networks and time slots for decades. The time slots have grown but the tradition prevails on Sunday afternoons at 1 and 4 p.m. ET. It wouldn’t hurt to leave some of the bigger games in those afternoon postings, in other words. 

Dollars and cents from the streamers and beyond might have something to say about that, and it’s financially understandably so. While it has become an easily-analyzed trope of proving a team’s social worth, looking at a team through the lens of exclusive windows (see above) may stand as a bit contradictory. However, consistency has obviously worked on the field for decades and it’s proven equally prevalent off of it. Here’s hoping Sunday remains a hallowed part of the calendar despite the expanding, winding road ahead.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags

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