2026 NFL Schedule Release: International, holiday games you'll need to know to help set your fantasy football lineups

Play 2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world's biggest soccer tournament

The Week 1 matchup between San Francisco and L.A. down under will air on Thursday night in the United States and Friday morning in Australia because of the big time difference — don’t forget the Seahawks will start their title defense on Wednesday, so managers will have to be ready for a busy opening week.

The Week 3 game in Rio de Janeiro will be an afternoon game, so that shouldn’t mess with our usual lineup approach. From Weeks 4-6 we have the usual London games, with the Jaguars playing overseas two weeks in a row. While we don’t have official times for those games in Europe, historically they’ve had a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff time. So be ready to lock your lineups early on Sunday for those weeks.

The Jaguars and 49ers are the two teams that play multiple games outside the country. If you’re factoring that into drafting when August rolls around, it will be a significant amount of travel.

The Rams will also be traveling plenty being on the West Coast and having that Week 1 Australia game. Just something to think about when considering picks like Christian McCaffrey, Mike Evans, Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, etc.

Holiday Games

Right now, we don’t have the official holiday schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We do know that the Cowboys and Eagles will be one of the Thanksgiving games while the Lions will host a team on that Thursday as well. Christmas lands on a Friday this year so there’s reportedly three games expected to be announced on Christmas Day. The Thanksgiving slate is scheduled for Week 12 while the Christmas slate is during Week 16 (the fantasy seminfal matchups for most leagues).

This story will continue to be updated as more schedule information is released.