Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The NFL schedule release highlights five major gripes that could impact team performance this season.
- Each issue focuses on specific challenges like early-season strength, travel fatigue and rest deficits.
- The Bears face the toughest short-week schedule while the 49ers face unprecedented air travel demands.
The new NFL schedule is out and the analysis of the slate is intense. With little happening on the football news front between now and the start of training camp, the NFL schedule is ripe to be examined with a fine-toothed comb for potential edges and disadvantages.
There are a lot of entertaining games on the slate as the NFL has expanded its scheduling foot print, but the people playing in those games often bear the brunt of those costs in terms of travel and fatigue. Let's examine the five biggest gripes coming out of the schedule release, beginning with a tough start for the reigning AFC Champions.
5. New England Patriots' early schedule
The Patriots' pillow soft schedule a year ago was mocked as New England seemed to catch every break imaginable on their way to the Super Bowl. A tough loss in the big game brought New England back to earth and they are now set to pay the invoice for their soft schedule early in 2026.
The first four games that the Patriots play in 2026 come against playoff teams, beginning with the kickoff game in Seattle for a Super Bowl rematch against the Seahawks. New England then hosts Pittsburgh before going to Jacksonville and Buffalo, marking a stretch against three division champions with three of those games on the road.
We will learn rather quickly if the Patriots are up to snuff based on the quality of competition they are about to face. There is runway for New England to get going after Week 4, with three of their next four coming against the Raiders, Jets and Dolphins, but they need to find a way to go at least 2-2 against a very tough stretch of opponents early to maintain a shot at repeating as AFC East champs.
4. CBS and FOX's schedules got spread pretty thin
The NFL made a huge point of putting big games on Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, Thanksgiving Eve and on Saturdays in December. Those top games need to come from somewhere, and Netflix's gains came at the expense of CBS and FOX, whose Sunday afternoon slates appear as thin as they have in years.
A deep dive into the Sunday afternoon schedules shows some very thin windows of games, particularly during the bye weeks and holidays. The NFL does try to proactively move games around if spotlighted teams underachieve, but by locking the perceived bottom five teams (Jets, Raiders, Titans, Cardinals, Dolphins) out of primetime they left themselves little wiggle room to help their long-time afternoon partners if things go badly.
The league helped both of them out with key standalone games in Weeks 15 and 16, but CBS in particular has a right to be miffed. The eye network has loved having the Bills-Chiefs showdowns for years and lost their top game this year as the NFL put it on Thanksgiving night to cap the holiday tripleheader.
3. Indianapolis Colts' early schedule
There is a lot on the line for the Colts this season as Shane Steichen may well be coaching for his job after a collapse at the end of the 2025 campaign. Quarterback Daniel Jones is coming off an Achilles' injury and the Colts need to win now to avoid handing a very high pick to the Jets as part of the Sauce Gardner trade.
The early slate for Indianapolis is rough with four contenders in their first five games, including trips to Arrowhead to take on the Chiefs and Pittsburgh in Week 5. The Colts also host Baltimore and Houston with an international game sprinkled into the mix with a trip to London in Week 4 against Washington.
There is a good chance things could spiral out of control quickly for the Colts, especially if they can't secure a split of the Ravens-Chiefs duo to start the year. The AFC South is rapidly improving so Indianapolis could be in deep trouble if they fall behind early on.
2. San Francisco 49ers' air travel
Air travel is an underrated factor in the NFL schedule, especially for teams based on the West Coast. The San Francisco 49ers will pay that invoice heavily in 2026, traveling a whopping 38,105 air miles over the course of the year, which is the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe over 1.5 times.
International games play a heavy role in that lift, including a game in Australia in Week 1 and in Mexico City in Week 11, but the 49ers also have cross-country flights to Atlanta and New York, with both games played at 1:00 p.m. ET. To make matters worse, the Falcons' game comes on a short week after San Francisco hosts Washington on Monday night.
The 49ers have asked in the past to group East Coast games together to minimize travel, but that was not done for them this season. All of this extra travel is not a good thing for the 49ers, who have a slew of players who have proven to be injury prone in the past.
1. Chicago Bears' short weeks
NFL players are creatures of habit and anyone given truth serum would tell you they would prefer to play every game on Sunday afternoon to build a routine. Rest deficits are a big issue when it comes to staying healthy and fewer teams are at more of a disadvantage on that front than the Chicago Bears.
The Bears have games on five different days of the week throughout the season, including two on Thursdays, two on Mondays, and one on Friday for Christmas. The way the NFL sequenced those games means that Chicago will play on short rest a whopping six times, easily the most in the league, with three of those coming in the back half of the season.
This is the kind of invoice that popular teams pay, especially when the NFL opted not to use five teams in national games to increase the value of their broadcast packages for advertisers. Ben Johnson's team appears to have drawn the short straw in terms of rest, which could be an issue for a team trying to establish itself as a regular contender in the stacked NFC North.
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