Schedule thoughts and way too early season prediction

May 18, 2026

by Steve Thomas

The NFL had its annual schedule release extravaganza last week.  As an aside, let me know if any of you actually watch the breathless coverage on NFL Network, because, honestly, I’ve never watched a single second of it in my entire life.  It’s much easier to just look at the schedule once it’s out.  Regardless, this means that it’s time to dive into what Washington is faced with in the upcoming 2026 season.  It’s too early to do my formal results prediction, but I’m going to take a shot at any early forecast anyway.  Even without my unnecessary predictions, there’s plenty to discuss from this initial look.  So without further ado, let’s get started.

Overall thoughts

First, the fact that Washington still has 4 prime time games and a nationally televised international game despite going 5 – 12 last year shows that the NFL still believes in the marketability of the team, presumably Jayden Daniels for the most part.  Four teams – the Bills, Packers, Chiefs, and Seahawks – have six prime time games, and five – the Bears, Cowboys, Patriots, Eagles, and 49ers – have five.  Washington is in the next tier down, with four, and if you include the London game, they’d be in the group with five games.  In other words, the NFL and its media partners view Washington in roughly the top third or so of teams in terms of marketability in 2026.

The fact that the NFC East is faced off against the NFC West and the AFC South this year is a poor stroke of luck in terms of schedule difficulty, because both divisions have several teams that did very well in 2025 and there’s no reason to suspect that any of them will be noticeably worse in this coming season.  Also, the fact that Washington has a home game in London, without a bye week immediately before or after the trip, is a tough ask.  This schedule appears right now to be very heavily weighted in the first half, so on the optimistic side, if the team survives with anything approaching a winning record, they could be in good shape to finish strong and be competitive for a Wild Card spot.  On the other hand, it’s possible that Washington’s season goes south early, to the point that they can’t recover.  This is a pretty unfortunate schedule, overall, for a team that was as bad as Washington in 2025, but they’ll have a chance to prove themselves early.

I like breaking up seasons into four quarters, so we’ll do that again this year:

First quarter

• Week 1: Sunday, Sept 13, at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:25 pm ET, FOX
• Week 2: Sunday, Sept 20, at Dallas Cowboys, 4:25 pm ET, FOX
• Week 3: Sunday, Sept 27, Seattle Seahawks, 1:00 pm ET, FOX
• Week 4: Sunday, Oct 4, Indianapolis Colts, 9:30 am ET, NFL Network (London)

My instant thought on the first quarter of Washington’s season is that it’s a doozy.  The first thing to notice is that Washington will be on the road for three of its first four games.  The London game in week 4 is technically a home game, but obviously it’s actually a massive travel burden to have to travel to Europe.  This is certainly the toughest portion of the season, two road games against two bitter division rivals, followed by the Super Bowl champs, then London.  It’s not impossible to think that Washington could start the season at 0 – 4, which would be unfortunate.  I don’t think that’s going to happen, but it’s within the realm of possibilities.  If Washington could somehow get out of this early part of the season with a winning record, it would bode very well for the rest of the season.  However, the idea that the team is going to beat both Philadelphia and Seattle within three weeks probably isn’t reality.  Most likely, Washington isn’t ready for that.

Steve’s way too early prediction: 1 – 3

Second quarter

• Week 5: Sunday, Oct 11, New York Giants, 1:00 pm ET, FOX
• Week 6: Monday, Oct 19, at San Francisco 49ers, 8:15 pm ET, ESPN
• Week 7: BYE
• Week 8: Sunday, Nov 1, Philadelphia Eagles, 8:20 pm ET, NBC
• Week 9: Sunday, Nov 8, Los Angeles Rams, 1:00 pm ET, FOX

This quarter of the season is almost as tough as the first quarter.  The Giants in week 5 is a winnable game, but after that, Washington faces three teams in a row that had records of 11 – 6 or 12 – 5.  That isn’t a recipe for success.  It’s also noteworthy to point out that the one away game is in San Francisco, which will be the second huge travel game in three weeks.  I’d love to predict better, but given the onerous nature of this quarter, I just can’t.

Steve’s way too early prediction: 1 – 3

Overall record: 2 – 6

Third quarter

• Week 10: Thursday, Nov 12, at New York Giants, 8:15 pm ET, Amazon Prime
• Week 11: Monday, Nov 23, Cincinnati Bengals, 8:15 pm ET, ESPN
• Week 12: Sunday, Nov 29, at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 pm ET, FOX
• Week 13: Sunday, Dec 6, at Tennessee Titans, 1:00 pm ET, CBS

It’s at this point that things start to get much easier.  In fact, this is going to be the least stressful portion of Washington’s season.  I say that recognizing that even here, three of four games are on the road; however, all of these teams came in last place in their respective divisions last year and I don’t see where any of them noticeably improved this offseason.  Washington has a decent chance to win all four of these games.  I think they’ll probably drop one out of respect for the fact that three games are away.

Steve’s way too early prediction: 3 – 1

Overall record: 5 – 7

Fourth quarter

• Week 14: Sunday, Dec 13, Houston Texans, 1:00 pm ET, CBS
• Week 15: Sunday, Dec 20, Atlanta Falcons, 1:00 pm ET, FOX
• Week 16: TBD, at Minnesota Vikings
• Week 17: TBD, at Jacksonville Jaguars
• Week 18: TBD, Dallas Cowboys

This is yet another tough quarter of Washington’s season.  The Texans and the Jaguars won 12 and 13 games, respectively, last season, and the Vikings had a winning record as well.  The good news is that 3 of these 5 games are home in DC, including the hated Dallas Cowboys.  I suspect that Washington won’t yet be completely out of the playoff race in week 14, which will create a competitive environment for the tough Texans game.  Washington will finish the season on a fairly strong note, including one win over a team they probably shouldn’t beat, but not enough to end up with a winning record.

Steve’s way too early prediction: 3 – 2

Overall record: 8 – 9

A 2026 record of 8 – 9, including a strong 3 – 2 finish, would represent at least some progress over the disaster that was the 2025 season.  If this coming season is anywhere in the neighborhood of my way too early prediction, I’d chalk it up as a win, of sorts.  What do you think about the 2026 schedule?  Let me know in the comment section.