NFL schedule winners and losers: Packers get soft beginning, Patriots face toughest start in 40 years

The league's schedule makers gifted Green Bay a relatively soft schedule during the first month of the campaign in which they're projected to be without their best defensive players. The Packers first games will be against four squads that all missed the postseason a year ago. Three of the four also possess uninspiring quarterbacks, which is an ideal situation for a Parsons-less Packers defense.

Week 1 involves a road game at the Minnesota Vikings, a squad that will either start an injury-plagued Kyler Murray or the embattled J.J. McCarthy at quarterback. McCarthy ranked dead last in the league in completion percentage (57.6%), touchdown-to-interception ratio (11-12), and passer rating (72.6) in 2025. Then, Green Bay will head east to face the New York Jets, a squad who had the first defense in NFL history to not record an interception. New York's starting quarterback is projected to be Geno Smith, a player who became the sixth quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to lead the league in both interceptions thrown (17) and sacks taken (55) in the same season in 2025 with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Week 3 will be Green Bay's first home game of the season, and it will take place in prime time against the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta's starting quarterback will either be Michael Penix Jr. fresh off a torn ACL of his own or Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa is fresh off the worst season of his career in 2025, having thrown a career-high 15 interceptions. Week 4 will feature another road game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team last seen losing seven of their final nine games of the 2025 season en route to missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Quarterback Baker Mayfield had his worst season as a Buccaneer by every key passing metric, and Tampa Bay will be breaking in yet another new offensive coordinator in Zac Robinson. Also, 2026 will be Mayfield's first year with the Buccaneers without Mike Evans after the latter departed for the San Francisco 49ers.

That's a pretty favorable stretch for the Packers before Week 5 when they return home to Lambeau Field to host the archrival Chicago Bears with Parsons eligible to return to play. If Green Bay can go 3-1 or 4-0 in that opening quarter of the season, which certainly seems attainable, they'll be able to hit the ground running before reincorporating their best player back into the lineup. Parsons' return will also be incredibly timely with a stretch that involves the Packers facing the Bears at home, the Cowboys at home, the Lions on the road and then the AFC champion Patriots on the road.

Loser: New England Patriots

Despite winning the AFC in 2025, the NFL's schedule makers didn't do the Patriots any favors. In fact, New England's 2026 squad will become the first since the 2019 Miami Dolphins to open a season with three consecutive games against division winners from the previous season, per CBS Sports Research. That's more division winners from the prior season than their 2025 team faced all season with that bunch squaring off against just two: the NFC South champion Carolina Panthers and the AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers. New England split those two matchups, losing 21-14  against the Pittsburgh Steelers at home in Week 3 and winning 42-13 over the Panthers at home in Week 4.

Two of the three division winners New England will face will be on the road. In Week 1, they kick off the 2026 season in Seattle against the defending champs. The Patriots had home in Week 2 to face the defending AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers before heading south to face the defending AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars.

That's an uncomfortable start for the AFC champs with plenty of travel against some of the AFC's top teams from a year ago. After that three game stretch, New England has to travel to Buffalo to face the division rival Bills at their brand new stadium.

That gives New England the hardest Weeks 1-4 strength of schedule entering a season since the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles, per CBS Sports Research. All four games are against 10-win teams from 2025, and three of the four are road games against teams with at least 12 wins last season.

* Hardest Weeks 1-4 strength of schedule entering a season (.721) since1986 Eagles

Winner: The Seattle Seahawks and their fans

To the victor belongs the spoils. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks will play in seven stand alone games, six of which will be in prime time. Of those six primetime showdowns, five of them will be in the friendly confines of Lumen Field in downtown Seattle in front of the crowd that brought the football world the "BeastQuake."

Five prime time home games also ties an NFL record, one that is currently held by the 2008 Chargers per CBS Sports Research. That's a big win for the Seahawks and the city of Seattle to have five home games under the bright lights, which will allow the champs to maximize their raucous crowd for their "Dark Side" defense that allowed the fewest points per game (17.2) in 2025.

* Five prime time games at home, ties NFL record held by 2008 Chargers

Loser: Steve Spagnuolo and the Kansas City Chiefs defense

The Kansas City Chiefs defense will look brand new in the secondary in 2026. Their two mainstays at corner, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, are now both on the Los Angeles Rams. At the moment, it appears that 2026 sixth overall pick cornerback Mansoor Delane out of LSU and 2025 third-round pick Nohl Williams will be taking their places in the upcoming season.

The NFL gave them the first half of the season to gel before throwing them into the deep end in the back half of their 2026 schedule. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will have his hands full attempting to game plan for six consecutive weeks facing an MVP finalist at quarterback from Weeks 12-17. Kansas City will face Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow, Drake Maye, Brock Purdy and Justin Herbert in successive weeks for over a month. That's a gauntlet of a stretch for a top-tier, experienced defense let alone one that will be asking a lot out of a rookie cornerback in Delane in 2026.

Winner: Tennessee Titans

Normally, one wouldn't see a team with zero prime time games in the winners section of this piece. However, the Tennessee Titans earn a spot in the winner's circle of the 2026 schedule release because they have perhaps the most comfortable schedule in the NFL. The league's schedule makers provided the Titans with a full week of rest before every game, a bye exactly halfway through the season in Week 9 and all but one game played in or within an hour of their home time zone. Tennessee's road game at the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 16 in the Pacific Time Zone is the only game multiple time zones away from Central Time.

That's about as cushy of a schedule, from a logistical standpoint, as any NFL team could have.

Loser: Los Angeles Chargers

The Los Angeles Chargers might be the owners of the most difficult stretch on any of the NFL's 32 schedules in 2026. The Chargers have a seven-game stretch in which they will face the Buffalo Bills, the Seattle Seahawks, the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Los Angeles, the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.

That group is composed of five teams that won playoff games in the 2025 season, and the two that didn't, the Chiefs and the Ravens, both have multiple-time NFL MVP winners at quarterback. All seven squads rank in the top 100 in FanDuel Sportsbook's Super Bowl odds. Los Angeles could square off against the last four NFL MVPs in this span with matchups against Patrick Mahomes (2018 and 2022 NFL MVP), Lamar Jackson (2019 and 2023 NFL MVP), Josh Allen (2024 NFL MVP) and Matthew Stafford (2025 NFL MVP). Three of the league's conference championship game participants from last season -- the Seahawks, Broncos and Rams -- are also represented in this seven-game stretch.

These seven games will make or break the Chargers' 2026 season as they are the toughest extended stretch in the entire NFL.

* Super Bowl odds via FanDuel Sportsbook