The NFL has started dribbling out pieces of its 2026 schedule, and the first batch points to a season built around prime-time stagecraft and a few marquee road trips. The Bills will host the Lions on Sept. 17 in the first regular-season game at Buffalo's new stadium, a Thursday Night Football opener that gives Amazon the first big TV draw of the year. The Cowboys will open on NBC's Sunday Night Football package at the Giants on Sept. 13, then host the Eagles on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26.
Those are only three of their 17 games, but they already shape the early feel of the season for teams with national followings and clear television pull. The full schedule will be released on Thursday, with more matchups expected before then. The Seahawks, the defending champions, will kick off the season on Wednesday night, Sept. 9, and unveil their Super Bowl banner before a game against an opponent that is still to be determined.
That Seattle opener has its own wrinkle. Because Dallas is at New York in Week 1, neither the Cowboys nor the Giants can be the visitor in Seattle on that night, which narrows the list of possible Seahawks opponents to Chicago, Arizona, Kansas City, the Chargers, or a title-game rematch against New England. The NFL has traditionally used Week 2 to spotlight new stadiums in prime time, which makes Buffalo's Sept. 17 slot stand out even more.
For Dallas, the Thanksgiving assignment carries a piece of history that still matters inside one of the league's most familiar rivalries. This will be only the third time, and the first since 2014, that Philadelphia has been the Cowboys' Thanksgiving opponent. Dallas has won its past four Thanksgiving games, and the matchup with the Eagles again places one of the NFL's most watched teams on one of the league's most watched days.
The league has already shown it is comfortable building the week around a handful of showcase games before the full list is public. A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Dallas will play the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3 on Sept. 27, with that game set for CBS. The rest of the schedule will fill in the blanks, but the first announcements make the shape of the season clear: the NFL is leaning hard into banner nights, rivalry windows and the kind of games that can travel far beyond the box score.
