NFL fans, mark your calendars. The highly anticipated release of the 2026 NFL regular season schedule is coming very soon, and while an official date has not been locked in by the league, all signs point to the schedule dropping sometime between May 12 and May 14 — with May 13 (a Wednesday) currently being the most likely target date.
The schedule release has become one of the NFL’s most anticipated annual events, drawing millions of viewers and generating enormous social media engagement as fans of all 32 teams discover when, where, and against whom their favorite teams will play over the course of the season. Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming 2026 NFL schedule release.
When Is It Coming?
According to multiple reports, the NFL is targeting the second week of May for the schedule release, consistent with the pattern it has followed for the past several years. The schedule was released on May 14 in 2025 and May 15 in 2024 — both among the latest releases in recent memory. This year, the league appears eager to return to a slightly earlier window.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, acknowledged that the league could potentially push the release to the third week of May if ongoing negotiations or unexpected draft developments required additional adjustments to the schedule. However, given that the 2026 draft concluded without major surprises that would fundamentally alter scheduling decisions, the May 12-14 window remains the target.
What We Already Know About the 2026 Schedule
While the full 272-game slate won’t be revealed until the official release, the NFL has already confirmed several notable elements of the 2026 schedule that fans can look forward to.
The season will kick off on Wednesday, September 9, with a nationally televised game on NBC featuring the Seattle Seahawks as the home team. This marks only the second time in the past 75 years that the NFL has opened its season on a Wednesday. The following night, Thursday, September 10, will feature the San Francisco 49ers facing the Los Angeles Rams in Australia — the NFL’s continued push into international markets taking the game literally to the other side of the world for the first time ever.
The Christmas tripleheader is returning for the fourth time in five years, with the first two games airing on Netflix and Fox getting the prime-time holiday slot. The Kansas City Chiefs — who have played on Christmas for three straight seasons — have publicly expressed their desire to be part of the holiday schedule again, though the league has multiple teams competing for those coveted slots.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will make NFL history by serving as the home team for two consecutive games in London — a first in league history. The Jaguars have been the league’s most committed international partner, and this dual-home arrangement in London represents the next evolution of that relationship.
One thing that is officially gone from 2026: the Monday Night Football doubleheaders. The NFL experimented with multiple Monday night games per week for several seasons, but league officials acknowledged that fans struggled to choose between the games, and the format will be eliminated starting this season.
Potential Black Friday Expansion
Commissioner Roger Goodell has been openly discussing the possibility of expanding the NFL’s Black Friday presence in 2026. The league introduced a single Black Friday game three years ago, and the early returns were strong enough that a second game is now being considered. A potential Black Friday doubleheader would represent the league’s most significant expansion of its holiday programming since the introduction of the Christmas tripleheader.
What This Schedule Means for Your Team
With the opponent matchups already determined — the NFL released home and away schedules for all 32 teams earlier in the offseason — fans have been able to identify the most compelling games on their team’s docket even before the official dates and times are assigned. The schedule release will fill in the rest of the picture: the exact weeks, kick-off times, and prime-time designations that determine which games become the season’s marquee events.
Stay tuned to NewsFeed for complete coverage of the 2026 NFL schedule release as soon as it drops.