The 2026 NFL season begins on a Wednesday night for the second consecutive year, and it begins with a Super Bowl rematch. T
The New England Patriots walk into Lumen Field in Seattle on September 9 to face the team that beat them in February, before the sport heads to Australia for the Los Angeles Rams vs San Francisco 49ers
Eighteen weeks of mouthwatering action follow that.
February 14, 2027 – Valentine’s Day – ends them, with Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Nine international games sit in between, including the first NFL regular-season matches ever played in Melbourne, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
It is, on paper, the most interesting season the NFL has put together in some time. 101GreatGoals has all the information you need ahead of the upcoming campaign.
When does the 2026 NFL season start?
The 2026 regular season runs from September 9, 2026, to January 10, 2027, with each of the 32 teams playing 17 games and receiving one bye week.
The playoffs begin the following weekend, with Wild Card games starting January 16, 2027.
The Divisional Round follows on January 24-25, the Conference Championship Games on February 1, and Super Bowl LXI on February 14.
The week-by-week schedule runs as follows:
Week 1: September 9-14
Week 2: September 17-22 (includes Bills’ first game at new Highmark Stadium)
Week 3: September 24-29
Week 4: October 1-6
Week 5: October 8-13
Week 6: October 15-20
Week 7: October 22-27
Week 8: October 29-November 3
Week 9: November 5-10
Week 10: November 12-17 (Patriots in Germany vs Detroit Lions)
Week 11: November 19-24
Week 12: November 25-December 1 (Thanksgiving on November 26)
Week 13: December 3-8
Week 14: December 10-15
Week 15: December 17-22
Week 16: December 24-29
Week 17: December 31-January 5
Week 18: January 8-10, 2027 (all-division matchups, seedings finalised)
All 32 NFL Teams: Divisions and conferences for 2026
The league’s alignment is unchanged from 2025. There are thirty-two teams, two conferences, split into eight divisions of four.
AFC East: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Jets
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans
AFC West: Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers
NFC East: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders
NFC North: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC West: Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks
The NFL abroad in 2026
The league’s international programme reaches a new scale this season with nine games across seven countries, the most in a single season.
Paris and Melbourne host NFL regular-season games for the first time, as does Rio de Janeiro.
The Jaguars play two games in London as part of their ongoing arrangement at Wembley Stadium.
The Rams open their season against the 49ers in Melbourne, and the Patriots visit Frankfurt in Week 10 to face the Lions in Germany.
Teams to watch in 2026
Los Angeles Rams
The betting market’s choice, and it is not hard to see why. The Rams enter the season having added reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett in a trade, signed cornerback Trent McDuffie to upgrade their secondary, and watched Aaron Donald come out of retirement to rejoin the franchise where he spent the best years of his career.
No team has ever played a Super Bowl at their own stadium. That storyline is going to follow this team all season.
Baltimore Ravens
John Harbaugh is gone, fired after a decade in charge following a 2025 season that saw Lamar Jackson finish with a losing record as a starter for the first time in his career.
New head coach Jesse Minter, who transformed the Los Angeles Chargers’ defence from 29th to seventh in his first season there, arrives with a clear mandate: build the defence around Jackson rather than asking the quarterback to carry everything.
If Minter’s defence is as good in Baltimore as it was with the Chargers, the Ravens are the most dangerous team in the AFC.
Seattle Seahawks
Defending champions and the side every team wants to beat.
The challenge, as always for the defending champion, is sustaining what made them elite when opponents have a full offseason of film and specific game plans targeting their most vulnerable areas.
Their schedule opens at home against New England in Week 1, hosts Kansas City in Week 7 and the Rams in Week 16. It is not a gentle title defence.
Kansas City Chiefs
Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. It is the most reliable sentence in American sports. Kansas City were not in the playoffs last season for the first time since 2020, and that absence has only sharpened what is already the most experienced championship-winning operation in the modern NFL.
They are in the conversation every year for one reason: Mahomes does not have bad seasons, only less successful ones. The AFC around them is deeper than it was during their dominant run, but betting against them is never the sensible choice.
Where to watch the 2026 NFL season in the UK
Sky Sports NFL is the principal home of live NFL coverage under a three-year deal confirmed in August 2025 and running through the 2027 season.
Sky carries Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, all three London games, every playoff game and the Super Bowl.
They also broadcast NFL RedZone and NFL Network. Sky Sports NFL is included within the standard Sky Sports subscription at around £40-£46 a month, or available without a contract through a NOW Sports Membership at £34.99 a month.
Channel 5 provides the free-to-air offering for viewers who do not want a subscription. Two live games air every Sunday throughout the regular season, the first at 6pm on 5Action, the second at 9.25pm on the main Channel 5 channel.
Channel 5 also broadcasts all three London games live. Their coverage has been rebranded for 2026 as NFL On 5, hosted by Osi Umenyiora and Sam Quek.
NFL Game Pass International via DAZN is the most comprehensive option for committed fans who want to watch every game.
DAZN carries the full NFL catalogue live and on-demand, including games not selected for Sky or Channel 5 broadcast.
UK kick-off times
The Sunday 1pm ET early window = 6pm UK.
The Sunday 4.25pm ET afternoon window = 9.25pm UK.
Sunday Night Football at 8.20pm ET = 1.20am UK Monday morning.
The London games, typically kicking off at 2.30pm or 6.30pm UK time, are the easiest regular-season games for UK audiences to watch live.
Super Bowl LXI prediction
It is brave to call the Super Bowl winners before the season has even started, but the Los Angeles Rams are the clear favourites for the Lombardi Trophy this season.
After announcing Aaron Donald’s return and pairing him with Myles Garrett, the West Coast side are in even more formidable shape than they were last season, which almost resulted in a Super Bowl appearance anyway.
Matthew Stafford is the reigning MVP, but he will really want to earn if after missing out on the grand prize last season.
Their opponents will be harder to call, but as it stands, it would be a huge shock if the Rams were not at least participating in the NFL showpiece in February.
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