Five Games to circle on the 2026 NFL schedule

After a week of teasers, leaks and increasingly elaborate schedule-release videos, the NFL has finally laid all 272 games out on the table, and there’s plenty to chew on. A record nine international games. A Wednesday night season opener. A Christmas tripleheader that doubles as a playoff preview. And a defending champion looking to do something nobody has done in two decades: repeat.

We could have picked twenty. We’ve picked five. These are the games we’ll be moving plans around for, the ones we’ll be writing about all summer, the ones that already feel circled in red.

Honourable Mentions

A few we couldn’t quite squeeze in but worth flagging:

• Patriots vs Lions — Munich, Week 10. Drake Maye in Germany. Dan Campbell’s Lions on tour. The Allianz Arena does not mess about.
• Chiefs at Seahawks — Sunday Night Football, Week 7. Kenneth Walker III’s return to Lumen Field. Bring tissues.
• Patriots vs Chiefs — Monday Night, Week 15. The first ever Drake Maye vs Patrick Mahomes meeting. Could end up being the headline AFC duel of the season.
• Vikings vs 49ers — Mexico City, Week 11. The international slate closes at Estadio Banorte and frankly we’d watch the Niners play anywhere.

1. Seahawks vs Patriots: Week 1, Wednesday 9 September, Lumen Field

Where else were we starting? The NFL has only handed us a Super Bowl rematch in Week 1 of the following season twice before — Chiefs-Vikings in 1970, Broncos-Panthers in 2016 — and this one feels even juicier than either. Seattle host New England at Lumen Field on the back of a Super Bowl LX banner-raising ceremony, with the small matter of Drake Maye walking into one of the loudest road environments in football for the biggest game of his young career.

The NFL has bumped this to a Wednesday night (8:20pm ET on NBC and Peacock) to free up the Thursday slot for the Rams-Niners game in Melbourne — an unusual midweek opener that gives this game its own clean window of national attention. They want eyeballs on it. They’ll get them.

The narrative threads are everywhere. Mike Vrabel returns to Seattle as the man who lost a Super Bowl by 16 points and then watched Kenneth Walker III — Super Bowl MVP, Seahawks legend, free agent — sign with Kansas City. The Patriots have loaded up on Romeo Doubs, Dre’Mont Jones, Kevin Byard and Alijah Vera-Tucker, and there’s still the small matter of an A.J. Brown trade that’s been on the simmer since the spring. Seattle, meanwhile, has to replace Walker, Boye Mafe, Coby Bryant and Riq Woolen.

Defending champions are 16-5 in Week 1 since 2004. The history is on Seattle’s side. But so is the noise, the banner, and the chip Mike Macdonald’s defence has been carrying around all offseason. Set the alarm. This is appointment viewing.

2. Eagles vs Jaguars: Week 5, Sunday 11 October, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

For the UK contingent, this is the one. The reigning NFC East champion Eagles — the team that lost the Super Bowl two years running before finally getting bounced from the divisional round by Drake Maye’s Patriots last January — flying into London on what will almost certainly still feel like a contender’s schedule.

The Jags are the wildcard here. Liam Coen finished second to Vrabel in Coach of the Year voting last season and has Jacksonville looking like a genuine AFC South threat for the first time since the Doug Pederson honeymoon. This is the second of three consecutive London weekends (Colts-Commanders the week before at Spurs, then Jags-Texans at Wembley the week after), but if you’re picking one, pick this one.

Spurs is the best NFL venue in Europe — the pitch literally splits in two and slides out — and Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, the probable A.J. Brown-to-New-England subplot, and a refreshed Eagles roster against a Jacksonville team trying to prove last season wasn’t a fluke is exactly the kind of fixture the NFL wants to be showcasing to a global audience.

Plus, frankly, if you’re reading offGrid NFL from a UK postcode, the question isn’t whether you’re going — it’s whether you can get tickets. Good luck.

3. Cowboys vs Eagles: Week 7, Monday 26 October, Lincoln Financial Field

Two NFC East rivals, one Monday night, Lincoln Financial Field at full tilt. The Cowboys haven’t won a road game in Philadelphia since 2022, and after a 7-9-1 season Jerry Jones has spent the spring throwing money at the defence to give Dak something to work with.

The Eagles have won the division in back-to-back seasons and remain the team everyone else in the NFC East is trying to catch. Caleb Downs is a rookie now wearing a star on his helmet. Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley have unfinished business after the divisional-round exit. And George Pickens lit Philadelphia’s secondary up the last time these two played in Dallas — that one’s a circled date in Philly too.

What makes this one matter beyond the rivalry: these teams will likely play twice in five weeks, with the Thanksgiving rematch at AT&T Stadium looming as Week 12’s marquee holiday slot. Get a feel for the temperature in October, then watch them go again with turkey on the table. Two NFC East contenders, twice in five weeks, with primetime stakes both nights. Don’t miss it.

4. Bills vs Chiefs: Thanksgiving night, Thursday 26 November, Highmark Stadium

The third game of the Thanksgiving tripleheader, and the one most likely to be the best game of the day.

Josh Allen hosting Patrick Mahomes in primetime on a holiday in the brand-new Highmark Stadium is the kind of fixture NFL schedulers dream about. The Bills have spent the last half-decade trying to find a way past Kansas City in January and coming up short. They’ve added DJ Moore from the Bears. They’ve got a defending MVP. They’ve got home-field advantage in the new building. And they’ve got Mahomes coming to town with a Chiefs offence that finally lost Kenneth Walker its training camp battle and is leaning even more heavily on what Andy Reid can scheme up.

This is the fourth Thanksgiving night game in NFL history, and it’s the one with the most genuine playoff weight. The Bills want this game badly. Mahomes vs Allen on a holiday, in the snow (probably), in a building that’s still finding its voice. Pour the gravy, settle in.

5. Rams vs Seahawks: Christmas Day, Friday 25 December, Lumen Field

The NFL has put the cherry on top of its holiday schedule. Two of the top three teams in basically every credible power ranking, in the same division, in a rematch of January’s NFC Championship Game — which Seattle won 31-27 at Lumen Field on a disputed final-play ruling on Puka Nacua that the Rams are still fuming about.

Sean McVay has spent the offseason rebuilding his secondary specifically to deal with this Seattle offence, trading the Rams’ first-rounder and three more picks to Kansas City for Trent McDuffie (now on a $31m-a-year extension) and signing Jaylen Watson on $17m a year alongside him. Matthew Stafford, the reigning league MVP, is coming to Seattle with a chip on his shoulder. Sam Darnold is coming off the season that re-launched his entire career.

Both teams will be jockeying for the NFC West and the No. 1 seed by then. These two play twice in the final three weeks of the season — Christmas Day in Seattle, then again in LA — and either one could decide playoff seeding. Mike Macdonald has gone 3-2 against McVay since taking the Seattle job. Every one of those games has been a one-score final.

If the season holds form, this is the best matchup on the entire schedule. And the NFL has handed it to us on Christmas Day on FOX. Merry Christmas to us all.

The 2026 season kicks off in Australia on 10 September and concludes with Super Bowl LXI in February 2027. Eighteen weeks, 272 games, one defending champion, and a schedule that, for once, feels like the league actually gave it some thought.

Set your calendars. Tell your boss. Find a TV. Let’s go.