The 2026 NFL season is so close we can taste it. The festivities officially start on a Wednesday this year with the Seattle Seahawks hosting the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch. From there, the NFL has whipped up a 16-game slate that has some really fun matchups mixed with some actual stinkers.
We're all out of practice and we totally understand if you're looking at the Week 1 slate and have no clue what to do with your NFL Sunday Ticket four-box. That's why we took the time to do the dirty work and rank all 16 games in Week 1 by how entertaining they should be.
This is not a prediction article. It's not looking at where there are opportunities to make money. It's for the purest form of football fans: the ones who want to veg out for eight hours on the couch. Let's dive into the slate, shall we?
The only people who care are Robert Saleh's eight kids
- 16. New York Jets at Tennessee Titans
The revenge game that nobody asked for. Robert Saleh and the Tennessee Titans host a New York Jets team that somehow wronged the head coach for being bad while he was the head coach. How dare they. He totally doesn't deserve any of the blame.
The Jets are genuinely cursed, so maybe Saleh can be a great head coach now that he is away from that ecosystem. Saleh has the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft at QB and a young roster with some upside. We've never seen him mess that up before.
Nobody will remember these games in six months
- 15. Miami Dolphins at Las Vegas Raiders
- 14. Arizona Cardinals at LA Chargers
- 13. Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers
- 12. Cleveland Browns at Jacksonville Jaguars
Wow, remember that Week 1 game where the Chargers steamrolled a bad Cardinals team that ended up winning three games en route to the No. 1 overall pick?
I'm the only human in history who will utter that phrase. There isn't a single soul on Planet Earth that will remember any of these Week 1 games unless an alien touches down from the skies above at the 50-yard-line during halftime.
Miami-Vegas could have been interesting if it was Fernando Mendoza's first start, but it isn't. Atlanta-Pittsburgh might've been fun if it wasn't a quarterback battle between two southpaws who might secretly be right-handed and a 42-year-old who is more worried about cooking his meat in beef tallow than he is about quarterbacking. And nobody wants to watch Deshaun Watson. Not even his own fans.
These divisional games all just blend together
- 11. Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Commanders
- 10. Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants
These could very well be fun games. The Commanders are looking to bounce back with a (currently) healthy Jayden Daniels, while the Philadelphia Eagles look to turn the page after their old offensive coordinator (theoretically) held them back last season. That's a recipe for fireworks. Or at least, a recipe for upset fanbases!
Then you have the always-entertaining Cowboys taking on every telephone pole's worst nightmare, Cam Skattebo. Sure, the John Harbaugh wrinkle at least makes this Giants-Cowboys matchup feel slightly different, but did anyone really want to watch this game on Sunday Night Football again?
Unique matchups that could be the water-cooler heroes
- 9. Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers
- 8. New Orleans Saints at Detroit Lions
- 7. Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts
- 6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Cincinnati Bengals
These matchups are unique and are sure to provide some kind of water-cooler talk on Monday morning. Chicago-Carolina is a battle of two playoff teams from last year with two No. 1 overall picks at quarterback. And let us not forget, the Bears don't get Caleb Williams without the Panthers.
The Detroit Lions might Shough around and find out if they underestimate the Saints in Week 1. New Orleans is the sleeper of the year with an exciting second-year quarterback and a head coach who overachieved in his first season. Don't sleep on Saints-Lions being the game of the week.
NFL historians will always get a kick out of any Ravens-Colts team as it's the battle between Baltimore's current team and the franchise that left the city out to dry in 1984. For our non-historians, there is talent anywhere you look on the field in this matchup, setting it up to be an entertaining affair.
Finally, we have a Bucs-Bengals game that has only happened 13 times in NFL history and hasn't been played since 2022. It's as unique a matchup as the NFL can provide in 2026 and features at least six (if not more) players who will be taken in the first seven rounds of your fantasy draft.
Potential playoff previews
- 5. Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs
- 4. Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings
- 3. Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: yes, Packers-Vikings is a potential playoff preview. Minnesota has the longest odds to win the NFC North of any of the four teams, but they might have the best chance with a competent quarterback now under center.
Take it from the guy who predicted the Carolina Panthers to make the playoffs last season, only to be ridiculed by his colleagues (true story): the Vikings will surprise people in 2026. We very well could see this matchup again in late January.
Broncos-Chiefs get an added boost as we all want to see how Mr. Taylor Swift plays with a ring on his finger, and totally not because of the lingering storyline that is Patrick Mahomes' ACL. And then we have Bills-Texans, which would have made the top tier of this article if it wasn't buried in the early slate with seven other games.
Can't-miss matchups
- 2. San Francisco 49ers at LA Rams (Australia)
- 1. New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks
There's a reason the NFL scheduled these two matchups as island games on primetime. One of these games is actually happening on an island, as the 49ers and Rams play the first NFL game down under in Australia.
The 49ers-Rams game is the equivalent of a blooming onion. It sounds amazing before it comes and it always lives up to expectations in the moment, but then you feel terrible afterwards and can't finish the main course. Traveling to Australia sounds great and will be awesome to watch in the moment, but there's a real chance that the NFL's furthest international game has real repercussions for those playing it.
It's only fitting that the best game of the week is kicking off the entire season. Some may argue against this being the game of the week given how the last matchup went, but the Patriots are healthier, better, and Drake Maye doesn't have as big a spotlight to avoid as he did in the Super Bowl.
Is this going to serve as a Super Bowl preview as well? Definitely not. But it should be a fun game nonetheless.
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