Experts assign draft grades as soon as the first round drafts up. Fans assess free-agency acquisitions as overpays or value additions before the ink dries. The NFL schedule release is less ripe for debate, but not all team schedules are created equal and there are absolutely winners and losers from NFL schedule release day.
Each team’s 2026 home and away opponents were set as soon as the 2025 regular-season wrapped up. But there’s still plenty at stake in the schedule release (aside from the quality of the schedule release videos).
What are some of the factors that can make a schedule seem more challenging or undesirable? Here’s the quirks that can make teams’ 2026 slates more of an uphill battle:
An ideal bye week either splits the regular season in half or provides much-needed rest late in the season, when injuries pile up and the toll of a season is significant. Byes within the first six weeks offer the same quantity of time off but are less valuable, because teams have barely started their regular season at that point.
- How “Thursday Night Football” is scheduled
Players have long expressed a strong aversion to playing in “Thursday Night Football” games, but they are not going anywhere. The main reason is the quick turnaround after Sunday games, which can make recovery difficult. Keep an eye on both the TNF matchups AND how those matchups are surrounded. For example, the Cowboys traditionally have a Thursday Night Football matchup the week after their Thanksgiving matchup, which gives them a leg up on opponents who played the previous Sunday.
- Matchups against teams coming off a bye
Playing a more well-rested team can absolutely make a team’s schedule more challenging in a sport as intense and physical as football. Along with increasing a team’s ability to recuperate midseason, coaches can get a jump on preparing for an opponent and mentally reset after the first stretch of the season.
- Long stretches on the road late in the regular season
Each team plays either eight or nine away games during the regular season, but the timing of those road games and the quality of their opponents can turn an average schedule into a brutal gauntlet – and can determine a team’s playoff fate.
