With the release of the National Football League’s 2026-27 schedule on Thursday night, some fans and observers question the upcoming slate down in Big D
By Matthew Serocki | May 15, 2026
The NFL has turned its annual schedule release into a pseudo-event to get fans excited for the upcoming season. Several networks dedicate a primetime block of programming for the release of 32 schedules.
As usual, the defending Super Bowl Champions will kick off the season, albeit on a different night this year. After beating the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX in February, the two teams will face off to open the 2026 season on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
Some fans may not find a repeat performance appealing, as the first NFL game immediately after the big game will feature the Seahawks, who easily handled the Patriots for the majority of the game.
Primetime means any NFL game scheduled without immediate competition from another game at the same time. Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and Sunday Night Football are the standards, with the Wednesday opener added this year. Thanksgiving and holiday games are different breeds.
Thursday’s Week 1 game will go down in Melbourne, Australia, between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. The Dallas Cowboys will host the New York Giants in their annual primetime game on Sunday Night Football.
While starting with the Cowboys in primetime in Week 1 is fine, the 2026 schedule release again displayed the massive bias league officials and schedule makers have for the Dallas Cowboys.
While the Texas team was important from the 1970s to the late 1990s, fewer high-profile franchises have been as irrelevant in the long run as Jerry Jones’ squad has been over the last few years.
His influence clearly impacts many things, from how much his team is featured on primetime to who gets into the NFL Hall of Fame. This doesn’t even take into account how his franchise dominates the early window games in every part of the country, regardless of market.
Without including holidays and their annual Thanksgiving slate, Dallas was given a primetime slot in six weeks of the 2026 season. It’s one more than both teams that made the Super Bowl (5). The six slots are tied for the most with the Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, and Green Bay Packers.
What’s the difference? Four of those five teams actually made the playoffs in 2025, including the Rams advancing to the NFC Championship game against division rival Seattle. The Chiefs made the Super Bowl in each of the three previous years (2023 to 2025). Dallas finished 7-9-1 and couldn’t make a big trade for Quinnen Williams pay off in 2025.
The usual number for top playoff teams is five primetime games a year. That’s what was allotted to Philadelphia, which won the NFC East; Chicago, which won the NFC North; and San Francisco and Buffalo, both of which made the playoffs.
Denver, which hosted the AFC title game against the Patriots, was only put on primetime three times. Let that sink in. The Broncos had the best record in the AFC and didn’t receive even half of what Dallas did. Even the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the league’s most storied franchises, like the Cowboys, netted only four primetime games.
Dallas has been consistently inconsistent – they’ll have a great year only to implode in the playoffs. Getting six prime spots after such a drastic season just displays the utter inequality between teams that deserve to be featured on primetime and the ones who get the same or more even when underachieving. The merits don’t add up with the 2026 NFL Schedule.
