🏈 Loaded holiday slates filled with top contenders headline the 2026 NFL schedule.

The 2026 NFL schedule almost seems to have been built around Thanksgiving and Christmas this year—with top contenders facing off for all of the standalone matchups. Starting with Thanksgiving, fans will get a full helping of marquee games with Bears-Lions, Eagles-Cowboys, and Chiefs-Bills.

Then for the Christmas Day slate, we’ll get three highly anticipated playoff rematches with Bears-Packers, Bills-Broncos, and Rams-Seahawks.

That’s without even getting to the other holiday matchups, with Packers-Rams being the first ever game on Thanksgiving Eve, Broncos-Steelers being the best Black Friday matchup yet, Texans-Eagles being played on Christmas Eve, and Ravens-Bengals capping things off on New Year’s Eve.

So, the holidays will feature the Packers (twice), Rams (twice), Bears (twice), Lions, Eagles (twice), Cowboys, Chiefs, Bills (twice), Broncos (twice), Steelers, Texans, and Seahawks. Then, the season happens to end with the Super Bowl being played on Valentine’s Day for the first time in history—and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see two of the teams from highlighted holiday matchups squaring off.

To begin the road to Super Bowl LXI, the defending champion Seahawks will host the Patriots in a rematch of the Big Game from February. It’s a bit of a surprise with the Bears seen as the best and most likely opponent for Seattle to open the season against, but NBC will instead be picking up where they left off with a rematch—as New England looks to show they are a different team than the one that lost handily in the Big Game.

Other primetime games to circle on the schedule include the Bills opening their new stadium versus the Lions (Week 2, TNF), the Seahawks facing the Broncos in the Super Bowl matchup that didn’t happen (Week 6, TNF), and Chicago visiting Buffalo on the Saturday before Christmas (Week 15, CBS).

Full primetime schedules: TNF, SNF, MNF.

From the Week 1 opener to the Week 18 slate, the full NFL schedule can be viewed here, or in the always helpful grid format.

Some of the current non-primetime or holiday games that stand out:

Also, the full international slate includes a record nine games, from Week 1 through Week 11.

The Steelers officially re-signed future Hall of Fame QB Aaron Rodgers on a one-year deal worth up to $25 million just before the start of OTAs.

As long as the wheels don’t suddenly fall off for an older roster, look for this veteran group to again be in the playoff mix—perhaps with more upside given the weaponry on offense—this season.

The Dolphins signed star RB De’Von Achane to a four-year, $68 million extension making him the third-highest paid RB in the league.

Giants star WR Malik Nabers underwent a second surgery on his knee after his torn ACL last season, but the team still hopes he is ready for Week 1.

Big event news: Tennessee is expected to get Super Bowl LXIV in 2030, while Minneapolis is set to get the 2028 NFL Draft.

Quarterback on Netflix is happening again this summer after Jayden Daniels, Joe Flacco, Baker Mayfield, and Cam Ward agreed to do it last season; it premieres on July 14.

“It’s getting disrespectful.” Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who already had his name butchered when the award was announced, received his trophy for it—with one problem: It says “Defensive Player of the Year.”

⛳️ Aaron Rai won the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimik.

🏆 The final four teams (Golden Knights-Avalanche and Canadiens-Hurricanes) remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are set after Montreal’s Game 7 OT win at Buffalo last night.

🏒 NHL HC firings: The Oilers fired Kris Knoblauch and the Maple Leafs moved on from Craig Berube.

😳 The NHL punished the Golden Knights, who collectively refused to talk to the media after their Western Conference semifinals series victory. The organization doesn’t seem phased.

🏈 Iowa hired longtime NFL coach Tom Moore, who is 87 and played QB for the school in the 1950s, as a senior consultant.