The NFL officially released its schedule for the 2026 regular season on Thursday night. The league had already given its fans a few crumbs in terms of individual games throughout the week, but on Thursday night the entire entree was presented.
Let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers from the schedule as things look in the middle of May.
Winner: The NFL
Just for the fact that it is such a monster of a sports league that it can turn something that could have been — and probably should have been — an email into a week-long event that has held the attention of everybody that has even a casual interest in the league. No other league, and no other sport, could make the schedule this big of a deal.
Eventually everybody is going to have to play an international game, and if you are going to have to do so Paris is a pretty good destination for a work trip. The problem? That is technically one of their home games for the season, so they are losing a game at the Superdome right off the top. But they also have to play that game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a franchise with one of the largest fanbases in the world, and one that has a tendency to take over stadiums like this. The Saints not only lose a home game in terms of location, they might lose any resemblance to a home-field advantage in the crowd.
Winner: Thanksgiving week
If you like your Thanksgiving holiday full of football, you are in luck. Not only because there are games Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week, but pretty much all of them look like powerhouse matchups on paper featuring some of the league’s most prominent teams.
The Cowboys, Chiefs and Lions are the only two teams in that stretch of games that missed the playoffs in 2025, and it is pretty widely assumed that the Chiefs and Lions seasons were an outlier. Both should be among the best teams in the NFL this season.
Loser: Packers bye week
The Packers might have the worst bye week situation in the league this year, as it will be followed by the aforementioned Thanksgiving eve game against the Rams. On a Wednesday. Having a Wednesday game coming off the bye week means they really only have a week-and-a-half off between games around that bye. That’s not really much of a bye week situation.
Winner: High-leverage division games late in the season
The Los Angeles Rams do not play the Seattle Seahawks until Week 16, and then play both of their games against one another in the final four weeks of the regular season.
It is a similar story in the AFC North with the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens who also do not play until Week 16 and then play twice in a four-week stretch to close the season. Those games could ultimately determine both divisions.
It is going to be a long season in the desert, and Cardinals fans might not have a realistic chance to see a win at home until December.
The Cardinals home schedule opens with the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Commanders, and Philadelphia Eagles. Not only will they be heavy underdogs in almost all of those games, there are a lot of teams that travel well and will make those games annexed home games.
Winner: Schedule release videos
The best part of schedule release day is usually the creative ways teams announce them. There are a lot of good options this season, but let’s give some credit to the Chicago Bears for channeling their inner Bob Ross with a happy little schedule.