NFL.com Maps Top 10 Matchups For Nfl Schedule Release 2026
NFL.com put out its top 10 games for the nfl schedule release 2026 before the schedule order was known, and the Seahawks, Patriots, Rams, Chiefs, Ravens and Bills drove the list. The ranking leans on matchups rather than dates, with Seattle and New England each showing up three times.
Seahawks And Patriots Lead
The Seahawks appear three times on the list, matching the Patriots team they beat in February. That pairing sits at the center of the ranking because Seattle’s Week 16 game at Lumen Field against the Rams was NFL Media’s No. 1-ranked Game of the Year for 2025, and it ended in overtime after the Seahawks made their third two-point conversion in the final 15 minutes.
That same win gave Seattle a major edge in earning the NFC’s top seed, dropped the Rams to the fifth seed and sent the Seahawks to Super Bowl LX. Seattle won that game handily, which is why another meeting with the Rams carries obvious weight even before the league sets the order.
Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold both cleared 300-plus yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the teams’ third meeting of the season. That game was one of two Rams appearances on the list, and it is one of the reasons Seattle’s name keeps surfacing across the ranking.
Chiefs, Bills And The New Highmark
The Chiefs and Bills each landed twice, and their matchup at the new Highmark Stadium is one of the showcase battles of the 2026 season. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have met 10 times in the 2020s, splitting those games 5-5, but the pattern has not been balanced by setting: Buffalo owns the regular-season series 5-1, while Kansas City is 4-0 in playoff matchups.
Travis Kelce gives the Chiefs-Bills rivalry another familiar face in a pairing that has become a repeated fixture rather than a one-off event. The Ravens also appear twice, while six more teams are listed once, which shows how heavily the ranking concentrates on a few marquee opponents before the schedule order is released.
Bears-Packers Stays On List
Bears-Packers makes the cut as one of the once-listed matchups, and the rivalry has lasted 105 years. All three meetings last season came in a 34-day span in December and January, so the pairing already has recent cadence even before the 2026 dates are set.
For readers tracking the schedule release, the practical takeaway is simple: the league’s most anticipated 2026 games are being framed by repeat matchups, not one-time novelty. Seattle, New England, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Baltimore and Buffalo all show up more than once, and that concentration is the clearest signal in the list.
