NFL.com has published its list of the 10 games it is most anticipating for the 2026 NFL season, even though the order of the schedule had not yet been learned when the preview was written. The Seahawks and the Patriots team they beat in February each show up three times on the list, while the Rams, Chiefs, Ravens and Bills appear twice apiece.
The headliner is the Seahawks, whose 2025 season was packed with rematches against the Rams. Their Week 16 meeting at Lumen Field was NFL Media’s No. 1-ranked Game of the Year for 2025, a wild overtime comeback in which Seattle completed a third two-point conversion in the final 15 minutes and seized a major edge in the race for the NFC’s top seed. The teams met again later in the season, and that rematch went to the final play before the Seahawks advanced to Super Bowl LX and won it handily.
Seattle’s profile is part of why the list draws attention before the 2026 NFL schedule release. In the teams’ third meeting of the season, Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold each threw for 300-plus yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, a level of production that helps explain why the rivalry landed so prominently among the league’s most anticipated games. The Seahawks and Rams were not the only matchup to earn repeated billing, but they are the one with the freshest proof that the calendar can turn a regular-season game into something bigger.
The Chiefs-Bills rivalry comes next as one of the showcase battles at the new Highmark Stadium. Kansas City and Buffalo have met 10 times in the 2020s, splitting those games 5-5 overall. The Bills hold a 5-1 regular-season edge in that span, while the Chiefs are 4-0 against Buffalo in playoff matchups. That mix of balance and frustration gives the matchup its pull, especially with a new building set to host one of the league’s premier tests.
Another rivalry with long memory also makes the cut. Bears-Packers has lasted 105 years, and all three of their meetings last season came in a 34-day span in December and January. The first meeting in Chicago will carry extra tension, which is exactly the kind of detail that can lift a game from routine divisional football to a centerpiece on a list like this. The remaining six spots belong to one-off appearances by other teams, underscoring how concentrated the league’s most watchable matchups are before the dates are even set.
The order is still unknown, and that is the point. NFL.com is not ranking what will be the biggest games on the finished slate; it is identifying the matchups with the most weight based on what is already known. If the 2026 schedule delivers the kind of timing the league hopes for, Seattle, Buffalo, Kansas City, Chicago and Green Bay will again sit near the center of the conversation.