2026 Schedule

[Puck]

On a side note.

Seconds after the schedule was announced the Dallas Cowboys have been eliminated from the playoffs

[Puck]

https://x.com/Schultz_Report/status/...397134111?s=20

Jordan Schultz
@Schultz_Report
·
2h
The #Colts’ schedule release is a Simpsons parody and it’s absolutely glorious! 🤣🤣

[apballin]

Originally Posted by Puck

If DJ is back We would go 3-2 or 4-1

AR. 1-4

Riley. 0-5.

I hope it’s Jones but if he’s not ready it’ll be Riley and we can still win with him. I like my chances with him starting over AR

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Puck

If Daniel Jones is back, we would go 3-2 or 4-1.

With Anthony Richardson at QB, we would go 1-4.

With Riley Leonard at QB, we would go 0-5.

Originally Posted by apballin

I hope that it’s Jones, but if he’s not ready it’ll be Riley and we can still win with him. I like my chances with him starting over Anthony Richardson.

o


I'm glad that Leonard got his feet wet against the Texans last season.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts went 5-0 with Leonard at quarterback.

Unfortunately, I think that it will be Richardson taking the snaps behind the center should Daniel Jones not be ready when the season opens.

o

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Kray007

With Jones, start 1-1, them 8 wins in a row.

o


If there is ever a team that is capablee of starting a season at 9-1 and finishing it at 9-8, it's the Indianapolis Colts.

I don't think that that will happen, but I won't be completely convinced of a change to their proverbial "Groundhog Day" mediocre ending to a season until I literally see the number "10" in the l W l column.

o

[Kray007]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


If there is ever a team that is capablee of starting a season at 9-1 and finishing it at 9-8, it's the Indianapolis Colts.

I don't think that that will happen, but I won't be completely convinced of a change to their proverbial "Groundhog Day" mediocre ending to a season until I literally see the number "10" in the l W l column.

o

Rarely has a season given equal fodder to two entirely different, diametrically opposed points of view.

The cold, hard fact is that the Colts suffered a historic collapse over the last half of 2025, losing seven straight games after an almost fairy tale beginning to the season.

A reasonable man can argue that this was simply the continuation of a pattern often repeated over the past few years. That there is something seriously amiss about the organization, the front office and coaching staff.

On the other side, there’s the argument that the losing streak was the result of injuries, that when you lose plan A and plan B at Quarterback, the results are predictable. Especially when you factor in the loss of Braden Smith, DeForest Buckner, and two of the best Corners in the game.

Everyone knows which side of the argument I hew to.

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Kray007

Rarely has a season given equal fodder to two entirely different, diametrically opposed points of view.

The cold, hard fact is that the Colts suffered a historic collapse over the last half of 2025, losing 7 straight games after an almost fairy tale beginning to the season.

A reasonable man can argue that this was simply the continuation of a pattern often repeated over the past few years. That there is something seriously amiss about the organization, the front office and coaching staff.

On the other side, there’s the argument that the losing streak was the result of injuries, that when you lose plan A and plan B at Quarterback, the results are predictable. Especially when you factor in the loss of Braden Smith, DeForest Buckner, and two of the best Corners in the game.

Everyone knows which side of the argument I hew to.

o


I don't think Colts' 8-2 start to last season was a mirage ...... I think that that it essentially who they were until they were relegated to a 4th-string, 44 year-old quarterback.

I think that the Colts will win somewhere between 12 and 15 games this season, and that they will have a real shot at winning the AFC Championship and earning a trip to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2009.

I think that Daniel Jones' play on the field last year before he broke his leg in the Chiefs game illustrated that the problem with the Giants when he played for them was with the Giants, and not with Jones himself.

I think that the Colts are essentially the team that took the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks down to the wire on their homefield in northwestern Washington last year with a 44 year-old quarterback, while 70,000 screaming Seahawks fans rooted against them.



*************************************************


And in spite of all of that, I won't be completely convinced of a change to their proverbial "Groundhog Day" mediocre ending to a season until I literally see the number "10" in the l W l column.

o

[Colts And Orioles]

o


8 Teams That Got Screwed by the 2026 NFL Schedule

(By Conor Orr)

https://www.si.com/nfl/eight-teams-s...6-nfl-schedule



Los Angeles Rams


This schedule is absurd. 7 prime-time games. A season opener in Melbourne, Australia. One of the worst net rest differentials in the NFL. Four 2025 playoff teams in the first five weeks. Thanksgiving Eve. Christmas in prime time against the Seahawks. 2 Seahawks games in 3 weeks to end the season. This, for a team with a 38-year-old starting quarterback who couldn’t get through training camp last year without a space-age health trailer. This is how the NFL unwittingly vanquished the Chiefs last year and is seemingly attempting to do it again with the Rams. There’s a reason Sean McVay cautioned ESPN to hold their horses when talking about the Seattle games at the end of the season because it’s unlikely the Rams will get there totally unscathed. While it’s a reality of the business, it’s disappointing to see the league’s premier offense get absolutely picked apart by factors that are totally within the league’s control.


Detroit Lions


I suppose I cannot complain too much about this one, given that the NFL has done almost precisely what I asked it to do: punish teams that have a very easy strength of schedule in other ways. However, my rub with the Detroit schedule is incredibly specific. Just like I despise that both Rams-Seahawks games are within a three-week stretch to end the season, I really dislike all of Detroit’s road divisional games coming between Weeks 15 and 18. The Lions travel to Minnesota, Green Bay, and Chicago all within the stretch of a month, creating a frantic period just before the playoffs in which the entire NFC North could change in complexion. From a viewing perspective, that’s what we would want, though the league fails to see the forest through the trees here. By creating such stretches, there’s a higher chance that Detroit punches itself out as it did during the disappointing 2024 run that finished with the Lions getting waxed by the Commanders in the playoffs. This reminds me a little bit of Pittsburgh’s schedule from a year ago, which felt purposely easy in the front half to buoy Aaron Rodgers for a playoff run, only to shove literally every single divisional game in a 12-week stretch after the bye. Again, the joke is on me because that schedule created one of the great win-and-in moments of the past 10 years, with Pittsburgh edging Baltimore on a missed field goal to make the playoffs, irreversibly altering the course of both franchises. Still, the goal here should be to pace these games more evenly.


Jacksonville Jaguars


ESPN’s Brian Burke creates a metric called the schedule “pain” index, which is a combination of all the worst factors of a team’s schedule (rest differential, back-to-back road trips, travel miles and so on), with the Jaguars’ schedule coming out as the worst we’ve seen since 2002. And, I will note that four teams in 2026 (the Jaguars, the Eagles, the Chargers and the Raiders) have among the 22 worst schedules since 2002. Think about that for a second. If any metric flags just how skewed the schedule-making process has become, this might be it. Between Weeks 2 and 6, the Jaguars are home once in a slate that has them facing the Broncos, the Patriots, the Bengals, the Eagles, the Texans, the Colts and the Ravens. Also, Jacksonville comes home from back-to-back games in London to a bye and a 10-game stretch in which 7 are on the road. Obviously, it is this team’s desire to establish a home away from home in London and turn that into an advantage, but a cross-the-pond road trip is grueling for any club.


Los Angeles Chargers


After beginning the season with the Raiders and the Cardinals, the Chargers fall into a stretch of games against the Bills, the Seahawks, the Broncos, the Chiefs, the Rams, the Texans and the Ravens. The Chargers will also finish the season with the 49ers, the Chiefs and the Broncos over a 3-game stretch. But the major storyline here is a minus-22 net rest differential, which is the second-worst for any team in more than 20 years. Last year’s 49ers are a perfect example of how much this metric matters ...... having had a horrendous minus-20 net rest differential, only to have the league’s best in 2025. San Francisco was able to overcome a slew of injuries at critical positions to make a playoff run. In 2024 ??? The team finished 6–11. The Chargers have 4 games against opponents coming off a bye in 2026, which is, you guessed it, tied for the worst in a 20-year stretch.

I think the point that I want to drive home here is what a mistake it is to pound this Chargers team at a time where they are primed to become a team that could capture the imagination of young fans. We talk a lot about growing the game and go to incredible lengths to stage a game in Australia when we’re opting not to invest in an L.A. team still trying to find its footing with the league’s most creative offensive coordinator and a wonderfully skilled quarterback who may finally have met his schematic counterpart.


New York Jets


This is less a league complaint and more of a Jets specific one. The Jets got secretly hosed in terms of net rest differential (4th worst at minus-9 days) despite a relatively easy slate of opponents. But I do wonder if the team is keeping a side eye on the schedules of other teams that are positioning themselves for a quarterback atop the 2027 draft class. Tanking doesn’t really exist in the NFL because it’s impossible to get 53 independent contractors to bypass future income for the sake of some 23-year-old college kid who may or may not be good. But this process illustrates just how simple it is for the league to put its thumb on the scale. The Jets have 3 first-round draft picks in 2027, but it won’t matter if teams like the Cardinals the and Dolphins finish with worse records. The Cardinals’ schedule is an absolute obliteration. The team begins the season with games against the Chargers, the Seahawks and the 49ers before a cross-country road trip to the Giants and a 3-game stretch against the Lions, the Rams and the Seahawks. After a road game against the Cowboys, the Cardinals play Seattle, the Rams, the Commanders and the Eagles. Similarly, the Dolphins have 3 four-game stretches dominated completely by prospective playoff teams.

Clearly, the NFL cannot think this way, but I wonder if there is a thought in the back of Roger Goodell’s mind that he may have inadvertently steered Arch Manning to a desert outpost instead of one of the biggest media markets in all of football.

Again, this is hyper Jets specific and more meta in nature. I can very much see a fan of this team thinking that, in the year they are supposed to be at their very worst, several teams are set up with far more obvious minefields ahead.


Denver Broncos


Zac Stevens of DNVR had this note: If you consider the Chiefs a playoff team ...... year ...... the Broncos would have been the first team in league history to begin the season with 6 games against playoff teams from the year before. I get that the Chiefs were technically not a playoff team last year, but they remain the Chiefs. Starting the season with the Chiefs, the Jaguars, the Rams, the 49ers, the Chargers and the Seahawks ...... with Bo Nix coming off of a reconstructed ankle ...... isn’t exactly a cake walk. And, just to illustrate the power of schedule-makers, you juxtapose Denver’s start of the season while Nix is recovering to that of Kansas City, where Mahomes has back-to-back home games and games against the Raiders and the Dolphins before an early bye. You can say that Kansas City’s schedule is an obvious makeup for last year, when Andy Reid’s team was sent to slaughter with a historic stretch of prime-time games, but a schedule that is fair and just to every team on a yearly basis wouldn’t have to worry about that ...... right ???


Buffalo Bills

This one confused me. Ideally, if a team is opening a new stadium, featuring a new head coach and boasting one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, this is a recipe for a featured role during the 2026 NFL season. Instead, we have a club that was shaky enough a year ago to necessitate the firing of its head coach, who was sent on an absolute odyssey. While it’s important to note that the league did grace the Bills with one of the best net rest differentials this year ...... something that I feel is important for teams with a harder natural strength of schedule, among other factors ...... Buffalo has among the highest net travel miles in the NFL this year and begins the year with games against the Texans, the Lions, the Chargers, the Patriots and the Rams before a bye, a cross-country road trip to the Raiders, and then a matchup with the Ravens. The Bills also have a brutal winter stretch beginning with a Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Chiefs, followed by games against prospective playoff teams like the Patriots, the Broncos, the Bears and the Packers. The Bills also play on both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day this year.


New York Giants

The NFL played another one of its scheduling parlor tricks with the Giants this year, understanding that the team, while much improved, is most likely to be an interesting property at the beginning of the season as opposed to the end. That means getting a lot of the tentpole properties like Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football out of the way early. While not as drastic as the Jets’ schedule in Year 2 with Aaron Rodgers, the Giants begin the season on Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys before a game against the Rams on Monday Night Football (while you could argue that getting the Rams coming off of a Melbourne game is the best time to play Sean McVay this season, that’s still a lot of stand-alone pressure for a head coach in his first season with the team, and it’s still a cross-country road trip for the Giants.) The Giants face 6 consecutive prospective playoff teams coming off of their bye week, with games against the Eagles, the Commanders, the Jaguars, the Colts, the Seahawks and the 49ers.

o

[Dam8610]

Schedule makers didn't do is any favors opening against the Ravens, Chiefs, and Texans, but at least 2 of 3 are at home. Also, where is the concern about Jones not starting the season coming from? The team expects him to fully participate in training camp.

[Butter]

Well, the Colts have certainly never been overly optimistic about a players health.