The New England Patriots schedule has been revealed, and it’s a tough one. It’s the sixth-hardest schedule in the NFL based on opponents’ win percentage from last season. New England has one international game and five prime-time slots.
It’s been a quiet offseason for the Patriots, not adding anyone jaw-dropping (pending AJ Brown trade), but they’ve made solid additions throughout the roster. Romeo Doubs, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Dre’Mont Jones, and Kevin Byard III won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but they improve this team a good amount.
The hope is to get back to the Super Bowl and this time finish the job for New England. Will the additions be enough? Does the schedule allow that to happen? Let’s find out.
New England Patriots schedule
Week 1: @Seattle Seahawks (Season Opener)
Week 2: vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 3: @Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 4: @Buffalo Bills
Week 5: vs. Las Vegas Raiders
Week 6: vs. New York Jets
Week 7: @Chicago Bears (TNF)
Week 8: @Miami Dolphins
Week 9: vs. Green Bay Packers
Week 10: @Detriot Lions (Munich)
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: @Los Angeles Chargers (SNF)
Week 13: vs. Buffalo Bills
Week 14: vs. Minnesota Vikings (TNF)
Week 15: @Kansas City Chiefs (MNF)
Week 16: @New York Jets
Week 17: vs. Denver Broncos
Week 18: vs. Miami Dolphins
Easiest Stretch
The Patriots’ schedule is completely different from last year, when it was one of the easier ones in terms of opponents’ win percentage from the previous season. New England has the sixth-toughest schedule this year, making it hard to pinpoint an “easy” stretch.
Looking at how it played out, Weeks 16-18 are the easiest stretch for this New England team. Playing the Jets in Week 16 is a nice change of pace from what the team has to go through the weeks prior. The Jets have made moves in the right direction, and could make this game close, but this should be a Patriots win at the end of the day.
Then it’s the Broncos who will be visiting in Week 17. It’ll be a rematch of the AFC championship game, and it won’t be easy by any means. Still, coming off the game against the Jets and facing the Dolphins in Week 18 is why this is the easiest stretch of the schedule.
New England is likely to go 3-0 during this stretch if the team is healthy heading into the Broncos game.
Hardest Stretch
This is the most brutal stretch I’ve seen for any team. Starting it off with an international game with the Lions in Week 10. It’s hard to travel internationally, but even tougher when you have to play the Lions, who had a down year in 2025 but look to bounce back in 2026. The bye helps, but immediately having to travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers. Coming off extra rest should help the Patriots, but facing the Lions and then the Chargers back-to-back isn’t easy.
Follow that up with the Bills in Week 13, who the Patriots know aren’t an easy game by any means, being led by quaterback Josh Allen. In Week 14, on short rest, the team faces the Vikings on Thursday Night Football. Kyler Murray will be used to the Kevin O’Connell system by then and could elevate the offense to a different level than we saw last year. The Justin Jefferson and Christian Gonzalez matchup should be fun to watch. Facing Vikings defense coordinator Brian Flores isn’t easy either, and he’ll bring some complications with his sophisticated scheme for Maye.
To cap it all off, the team travels to Kansas City in Week 15 to face Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes tore his ACL late in the 2025 season, but is expected to be ready by the start of the season. He’ll be up to speed by then, making it a tougher challenge for the Patriots’ defense, and traveling to Kansas City late in the year is no easy task.
The worst-case scenario for the Patriots during this stretch is 1-4, but I can see them going 3-2 with losses to the Chiefs and Detroit.
How did the schedule unfold for the Patriots?
No matter what, this schedule was going to be challenging. Based on win percentage, this team had the sixth-hardest schedule for 2026. Still, the schedule unfolded well for the Patriots. They get the Seattle game out of the way early in the season, and road games against Buffalo and Chicago in the first half of the year as well.
The back half is rough, having an international game in Munich and having the late road game against Kansas City, but ending it with the Dolphins and Jets as two of the last three is a bright spot. The tough games are spread out decently well, and the team has more home games during the crucial playoff push, in the final eight weeks.
Many criticized the Patriots for having an easy schedule, which led to them getting the No. 2 seed for the AFC last season, but one thing’s clear. If they end up winning the AFC East and getting a top-2 seed in the conference, no one can say it was because of an easy schedule. It did favor them a little, but it’s still hard nonetheless.
