The 2025/26 NFL schedule begins on September 4 with Week 1. As usual, the reigning Super Bowl champions will play the opening game at home. That team is the Philadelphia Eagles. Their opponents will be the Dallas Cowboys.
What does the 2025/26 NFL schedule look like?
All games, including the International Games, the NFL Berlin 2025 game, the Thanksgiving and Christmas games, and an explanation of the rather complicated NFL schedule composition.
NFL schedule 2025 – Week 6 dates
NFL schedule Week 4
The NFL schedule for 2025 kicks off in Week 6 on Thursday night/Friday morning (October 10, 2:15 a.m. German time) with the New York Giants taking on the Philadelphia Eagles in the Thursday Night Game.
On Sunday, the NFL schedule features the next international game of the season – again in London, but this time with the New York Jets vs. Denver Broncos.
Sunday in Week 6 will then proceed as usual. There will be seven 7:00 p.m. games simultaneously. After that, three games will take place simultaneously starting at 10:00 p.m., including the AFC hit with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. San Francisco 49ers.
In the Sunday Night Game, the Detroit Lions will be guests of the Kansas City Chiefs. On Monday night, the NFL schedule continues with the Monday Night Game to conclude Week 6 – featuring the Washington Commanders vs. Chicago Bears.
NFL schedule 2025 – all regular season dates
The 2025/26 NFL schedule begins on September 4 with Week 1. The final round of the NFL regular season schedule takes place on the weekend of January 1-7.
The NFL playoffs are scheduled to start on January 10-14. There are three rounds to go before the grand final.
Super Bowl LX – the glamorous final game of the NFL championship – will take place on February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
NFL schedule – dates of the 2025 International Games
There will also be “International Games” again in the 2025/26 season – seven of them, in fact!
Three International Games will be held in London (Great Britain) in the 2025/26 season. There will be three more in Europe – one each in Berlin (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), and Madrid (Spain). One will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is also the first game on the 2025 NFL schedule.
The International Games on the 2025 NFL schedule
Brazil Game:
- September 5: Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (Corinthians Stadium)
Dublin Game:
- September 28: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Minnesota Vikings (Croke Park)
London Games:
- 5.10.: Cleveland Browns vs. Minnesota Vikings (Tottenham Stadium)
- 12.10.: New York Jets vs. Denver Broncos (Tottenham Stadium)
- 19.10.: Jacksonville Jaguars vs. LA Rams (Wembley Stadium)
Berlin Game:
- Nov. 9: Indianapolis Colts vs. Atlanta Falcons (Olympic Stadium)
Madrid Game:
- 16.11.: Miami Dolphins vs. Washington Commanders (Santiago Bernabeu)
London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – the only purpose-built NFL stadium outside the US – will host two international games this season. The third London game on the 2025 NFL schedule will take place at Wembley Stadium.
In Germany, after a game was held in Munich last year, it is now Berlin’s turn. New additions to the NFL International Games schedule are Madrid and Dublin. This will be the first time NFL games have been held in Spain and Ireland.
And then, following its premiere last year, the NFL Sao Paulo Game will also be back on the 2025 NFL schedule. It will once again take place at the Corinthians Sao Paulo soccer stadium.
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NFL 2025 schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas
The annual tripleheader on Thanksgiving (November 27 this season) will once again feature some big-name teams in the 2025 NFL schedule. It’s sure to be a holiday for football fans, too!
This season’s NFL schedule will once again feature three Thanksgiving games. In addition, there will certainly be another “Black Friday game,” as there was for the first time last season.
Until now, Black Friday was primarily known for shopping bargains. But since the 2023 season, the Friday after Thanksgiving has also gone down in history as an NFL game day.
NFL schedule 2025 for Christmas & New Year’s Eve
In the 2023 season, three games took place on US Christmas Day, which was a Monday. These three games were among the five most-watched NFL games on Christmas Day since 1988.
The NFL therefore held two games on Christmas Day in the previous season, even though December 25 was a Wednesday. This will probably be the case again this season in the NFL schedule for 2025.
This season, for the first time since the league expanded from 16 to 17 games in 2021, December 25 falls on a Thursday. Therefore, the league will hold Christmas games on Thursday for the first time, including two afternoon games and the regular Thursday Night Game.
Prior to 2021, Christmas Thursday usually fell on the last week of the regular season, when the league preferred not to schedule Thursday games that would have given teams a competitive advantage by giving them more rest time before the first round of the playoffs.
Which Christmas games are on the 2025 NFL schedule? First, Washington Commanders vs. Dallas Cowboys, and second, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos.
The format for the 2025/26 NFL schedule
The NFL schedule for the 2025/26 season will also consist of a total of 18 game days, with each team having one bye week. This means that each team will play 17 games during the season.
This is how the 17-game NFL schedule is created:
- The four teams in a division always play one home and one away game against each other ⇒ 6 games
- Each year, one team from a division also plays against all four teams from another division in its own conference. (Every three years, all divisions in a conference are played through) ⇒ 4 games
- After a 4-year rotation principle, each team plays once against all four teams from another division in the other conference. Two of these games are played in their own stadium and two away. ⇒ 4 games
- In addition, the NFL schedule includes games against teams from the same conference that finished in the same position in the table the previous year – one home game and one away game (except for the division that the team is already playing against based on the current NFL schedule). ⇒ 2 games
- The 17th game is against another team from the other conference that finished in the same position in its division. The division that the team is already playing against is excluded, and the remaining divisions are also rotated. ⇒ 1 game
This NFL schedule guarantees that all teams play every other team at least once every four years and must play at every other team’s stadium at least once every eight years.
