Giants Host Cowboys in Week 1 on NBC — Dallas Cowboys Schedule 2026
The dallas cowboys schedule 2026 opens with a Sunday night trip to New York, where the Giants will host Dallas in Week 1 on Sept. 13 at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. It is the eighth time in the past 15 seasons that the division rivals have met to open a campaign.
Giants-Cowboys on NBC
That matchup gives the Cowboys an immediate test against Jaxson Dart and the Giants, with Dak Prescott at the center of the opening-week storyline. CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Christian Parker also sit on the Dallas side of the 2026 picture, but the first headline is the same one the league is leaning on: a classic rivalry in prime time.
"Sunday Night Football is going back to a classic rivalry to open its 2026 NFL slate." That framing fits the pairing cleanly. New York gets the home opener, Dallas gets the national stage, and the schedule starts with one of the league’s most familiar division games.
Thursday Schedule Release
The rest of the 2026 NFL schedule will come out on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, so the Week 1 meeting is the clearest date on the board for Dallas right now. The league also revealed all nine International Games across four continents and seven countries on Wednesday, but the Giants-Cowboys game is the one that sets the tone for the Cowboys’ domestic slate.
For both teams, the opener arrives with some pressure attached. The Giants and Cowboys are division rivals, and the Week 1 meeting will be the eighth time in the past 15 seasons they have opened against each other. That kind of familiarity leaves little room for a soft start.
Thanksgiving Week 12
One more marker already sits on the calendar: the Detroit Lions will host the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day in Week 12, and Jordan Love and the Packers will travel to face Matthew Stafford and the Rams on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 25. The Packers-Rams game will kick off Week 12, giving the middle part of the season a second headline date while Dallas waits for the full release to show the rest of its path.
For Cowboys fans, the practical takeaway is simple. The first thing they can circle is Sept. 13 at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC, when Dallas opens 2026 against the Giants in one of the NFL’s most watched rivalry games.
