NFL Schedule Analysis and Predictions for Upcoming Seasons
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The Eagles host the Washington Commanders to begin the year and then have two straight road games versus Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears. It’s conceivable the Eagles fly out to a 3-0 start before they host the Los Angeles Rams in a Week 4 showdown.
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Bleacher ReportPhiladelphia Eagles: Hot Quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles have to be relatively happy with how the early portion of the schedule shook out. Yes, the Eagles face a pir of stout opponents in Weeks 3 and 4 when they head to Soldier Field to take on the Bears and host the Rams. But if they can split that pair the Eagles should be looking at 3-1 given that they open at home against the Washington Commanders before traveling to Tennessee in Week 2.
Fox SportsTo kick things off for Chicago, the Bears open the season on the road at the Carolina Panthers, and then have three-straight at home against the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and the Jets. And while that aforementioned game against the Seahawks is after a matchup against the Patriots, Chicago hosts New England on a Thursday night. So, the Bears will take on the Seahawks with an extended break.
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More Dolphins: Predicting the Dolphins' 2026 schedule game-by-game This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Dolphins 2026 schedule: Late 5-game stretch will be Miami's toughest
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Bleacher ReportMiami Dolphins: Cold Most pundits expect the 2026 season to be a long one in Miami, and the early portion of the schedule didn't do the team any favors. The season opener in Las Vegas against the Raiders could be a winnable game, But the Dolphins will be decided underdogs in San Francisco and Minnesota and at home against the Chiefs. Anything better than 1-3 to start things off will be a pleasant surprise.
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The NFC West is going to be must-watch football in 2026. Following the success of the Seattle Seahawks and their Super Bowl victory back in February, expect each team in this division to try to be the second-straight Super Bowl winner from it.
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Bleacher ReportSeattle Seahawks: Mild It shouldn't be all that surprising that no NFC West team has an easy road to roaring out of the gate—the division sent three teams to the postseason a year ago. Seattle begins their title defense at home in a Super Bowl rematch with the New England Patriots before a less-than-daunting two-game road trip to Arizona and Washington. Then things get real—four games in five weeks against playoff teams from 2025, with the other contest a home tilt with the Chiefs.
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New England Patriots Face Five Primetime Games In Tough 2026 NFL Schedule Patriots face major tests in 2026.
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Bleacher ReportNew England Patriots: Cold The Patriots won 14 games last year in part due to a last-place schedule, but the Pats will receive no such benefit in 2026. Starting with a trip to Seattle for a Super Bowl LX rematch to kick off the season, the Patriots face four straight 2025 playoff teams to open the season. As if that wasn't tough enough, three of those games are on the road, including trips to Seattle, Jacksonville and Buffalo.
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NFC East 2 of 8Dallas Cowboys: Mild This is the time of year when fans of the Dallas Cowboys are awash with hope and anticipation, and that hope could ratchet up even more if the team wins matchups with NFC East opponents New York and Washington to start the season. The first month of the season becomes decidedly harder after that—Dallas faces the Baltimore Ravens in Brazil in Week 3 before a trip across Texas to take on the Houston Texans in Week 4.
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Yahoo SportsThen there's the NFC East with several teams, like the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders and New York Giants all primed for a resurgence after strong offseasons.
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AFC North 3 of 8Baltimore Ravens: Hot Running back Derrick Henry and the Ravens have a chance to start the season on quite the rip. The Ravens don't play a team that had a winning record last season until a Week 8 matchup with the Buffalo Bills. The first month of the season is mostly a cakewalk—heading overseas to take on the Cowboys is at least something of a challenge, but a road trip to Indianapolis and home games with the Saints and Titans all appear winnable.
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Yahoo SportsThe Ravens have an intriguing road game versus the Indianapolis Colts to start the year and then host the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 before traveling to Rio De Janeiro to take on the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3.
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Detroit Lions: Hot The Lions started the season hot last year, winning four straight after a Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers. A repeat this year is well within reach—a Week 2 trip to Buffalo is a daunting challenge, but that is Detroit's only game before their Week 6 bye that features an opponent with a winning record. The Lions also get two tomato cans early—the Jets at home in Week 3 and at Arizona in Week 5.
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Yahoo SportsAfter the Lions’ Week 6 bye, they have two straight home contests against the division rival Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings before they travel to Miami to take on the rebuilding Dolphins in Week 9.
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Cardinals underdogs for all 17 games: Arizona’s first 11 weeks is tough. Seven of those games will be on the road and don’t get a bye week till Week 14. Playoffs teams like the Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. Other fringe playoff teams appear during that first half stretch, including Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Certainly a trap game could happen for the superior opponents, leading to an upset win.
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Bleacher ReportNFC West 8 of 8Arizona Cardinals: Cold Listen, we all know that the Arizona Cardinals are probably in for a long season. But any hopes the Redbirds have of even a respectable season could be out the door by the time kids go Trick-or-Treating, and there's a legitimate chance this team starts 0-4. Arizona's first month of the season is just mean—a trip to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers (one of three road games over four weeks), followed by a home date with the Super Bowl champions and matchups with the 49ers and Giants—the latter on the East Coast at 1PM.
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The fate of the Lions’ regular season could be decided in the final four weeks of the regular season where they have road games against all three NFC North rivals.
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NDTV SportsDetroit Lions Hit With Brutal 2026 NFL Schedule Twist As Tough Road Run Sparks Buzz Detroit Lions face a tough late-season road challenge in the 2026 NFL schedule.
4 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Yahoo Sports To try and strike a balance between the objectivity of stats and ball-knowing film junkies, we averaged the rankings for 36 quarterbacks from five different metrics (Pro Football Reference passing success rate and adjusted net yards per attempt, NFL passer rating, ESPN's quarterback rating, and Pro Football Focus passer grade) and cross-checked them against the final 2025 quarterback rankings from four different outlets (For The Win, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, and NFL.com). That gave us something close to a clean list accounting for statistical analysis and honest evaluations, though it took a few tweaks and some judicious choices to fit guys like Deshaun Watson in there who didn't play last year but could start in 2026.
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02 CBS Sports SportsLine simulated the new NFL season 10,000 times to help form your 2026 Fantasy football draft strategy
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03 Bleacher Report Only the NFL can turn even relatively trivial matters into made-for-TV extravaganzas. Such is the case for the league's schedule release, which has become (like all things NFL) a media event.
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04 Fox Sports "Him coming in, doing those things — not only doing it, but doing it at an elite level — man, it’s fantastic," Wayne told me in January, two days before Toney led Miami onto the field in the national championship game against Indiana. "Whenever you get somebody like that as a freshman creating havoc like that, it does nothing but just put Miami on everybody’s minds all day and all night."
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