Tom Brady's homecoming highlights things TV execs love about 2026 NFL schedule

Tom Brady's homecoming highlights things TV execs love about 2026 NFL schedule

Spoiler alert – all of the NFL’s broadcast partners love their 2026 slate of games that comprise the 18-week, 272-game marathon that is the regular season.

The specific reasons, though, vary from company to company.

USA TODAY Sports caught up with executives from four media entities – ESPN, NBC, Amazon Prime Video and FOX – for a breakdown of how each network (or streamer) wound up with its package of games for the 2026 season.

FOX is back to loving the NFC (feat. a Tom Brady homecoming)

At FOX's advertising Upfront presentation on May 11, the network declared itself the home of the NFC. FOX had earned that distinction over decades of holding NFL rights. That changed in 2025 when the network wanted a more equitable share of AFC contests.

FOX, with more broadcast windows than any media partner for the second straight season, is back to having the NFC as its main squeeze in 2026.

“This year we went into it saying ‘We actually want to keep as much of the NFC power as we can,’” FOX Sports president, insight and analytics, Michael Mulvihill told USA TODAY Sports.

That's not to say FOX has rid itself entirely of high-quality AFC games. The Week 14 matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs will air on the network. But FOX wants to be the home of big NFC brands and markets, “a bit of a back-to-basics approach,” Mulvihill said.

“We very much want our identity to be wrapped up with the NFC and this feels like a good time to be aligned with the NFC,” he said. “We’re still clearly the home of the NFC at a time where, pretty clearly, the pendulum has swung back to the NFC. I think we’re coming out of an era where the AFC probably had more of the marquee quarterbacks, they obviously had a Chiefs dynasty for a number of years.”

From the young quarterback talent in the conference – Caleb Williams, Jordan Love, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, Jaxson Dart, among others – to the size of the markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth), the reasons for an NFC preference are plentiful, Mulvihill said.

“These are the biggest markets, these are the most dynamic, local economies, which is good for our advertisers,” he said.

One specific ask FOX made to the NFL was to air the Packers at New England Patriots contest in Week 9 to promote the game as a homecoming for ex-Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who will call his first game from Gillette Stadium.

“With New England breaking through last year, being a conference champion, we truly thought we had an opportunity to get a big, special game in Foxborough and make a big deal out of Tom going home as a broadcaster and part of our team,” Mulvihill said.

In recent years, FOX felt it fell victim to having too many blowouts during its windows and wanted to prioritize having a strong early window on Sundays that have standalone "Game of the Week" windows in the late afternoon. Of course, Mulvihill said, the network wants to be strong every week, but that's simply not reality in every window. Choices have to be made to fit the firepower in certain spots.

“Strategically, that makes a big difference for us, and the league did a good job of delivering on that for us,” Mulvihill said.

ESPN readies for first-ever Super Bowl

A significant portion of ESPN's efforts from now until Feb. 14, 2027, will focus on promoting Super Bowl 61. But the network is excited about its 29-game inventory – a record for ESPN made possible by its acquisition of the NFL Network – that is highlighted by intriguing matchups on "Monday Night Football" in the first half of the calendar.

“We’re really thrilled with what games the league ultimately provided to us,” Tim Reed, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions, told USA TODAY Sports. “So we feel like there’s a lot there.”

The 2026 schedule for ESPN consists of one game on Monday night for the first 17 weeks of the season rather than the occasional doubleheaders, which will make things simpler and cleaner for the “Worldwide Leader.” Ten of the games will be simulcast on ABC.

“We just wanted to give the league as much flexibility to land the best games, the biggest games on whatever Monday night the computers generating the schedule would put out,” Reed said.

In October, the property will air eight games, thanks to the bulk of the international slate being on NFL Network.

“It’s more NFL, it’s more games across our networks," Reed said. "From the standpoint of the scheduling, it makes the whole thing feel even bigger.”

And is a way to build momentum throughout the season toward the Super Bowl.

Prime Video goes outside division matchups for change

Since Amazon's Prime Video took over "Thursday Night Football" four years ago, the streamer has relied on divisional matchups. That's not necessarily the case in 2026, despite the regular-season finale of "TNF" being a Cincinnati Bengals-Baltimore Ravens tilt.

“Each schedule is unique and the way this schedule broke out was better for cross-conference and cross-divisional matchups," Amazon Prime Video head of US Sports programming Jeff Kaiser told USA TODAY Sports.

More: Who plays on 'Thursday Night Football' this year? 2026 prime-time schedule

Six teams will appear on "TNF" (or Black Friday, technically, for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos) twice this season, the same number as last year. Five of the six teams made the playoffs in 2025.

A matchup the streamer highlighted to the NFL and was ultimately rewarded with was the Week 2 season premiere for "TNF," with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Detroit Lions in the inaugural game from the new Highmark Stadium.

Prime Video also benefited from the addition of a Thanksgiving Eve game between the Los Angeles Rams and Packers. That gave schedule-makers two more teams that could have been paired with the six teams that play three games on Thanksgiving Day. Amazon and the NFL took advantage by scheduling the Rams against the Chiefs for the ensuing "TNF."

“So we look at it as a net positive to schedule a really strong combination the week after Thanksgiving, working off of eight potential teams that can play each other verse six,” Kaiser said of the schedule flexibility.

NBC pumped about second-half 'SNF' schedule

NBC wanted one game in particular that had eluded them over the years: the Bills against the Chiefs.

Normally awarded to CBS, this Thanksgiving Day finale caps a massive day for NBC, which airs the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show.

“It’s kind of what our company’s about, which is driving scale on big days and big events and we think that’s going to be one of the highlights of the season,” NBC Sports executive vice president of programming Justin Byczek said.

The network's schedule begins with the same matchup of its most-recent game, a Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and Patriots that will be played on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

For fans wondering why the Giants and Cowboys are starting the "Sunday Night Football" slate in Week 1 for what feels like the thousandth time (it is the eighth time since 2012 that the NFC East rivals will square off in their season opener), Byczek said "it's a game we've always loved having."

“It’s an impossible assignment to get everything you want and ask for,” Byczek said, “and we trust the league to do a good job of it.”

"SNF" goes international for the first time (NBC streamed a Week 1 Brazil game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers in 2024 on Peacock on a Friday) with their Week 11 game between the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers from Mexico City on Nov. 22.

The production and promotion is something NBC is proud of and proves why it’s been the most-watched primetime program for the past 15 years, Byczek said. If the back half of the schedule doesn't work out, the network always has flex options.

“There are going to be some things that look unbelievable on paper in May that you’re really excited about,” Byczek said, “and then the beauty of NFL football is all of the surprises that happen along the way.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FOX returning to NFC focus in 2026 NFL broadcast schedule