2026 NFL schedule: Execs discuss weekday openers, 49ers’ travel, prime-time shutouts, rest disparity
The days of every NFL team being guaranteed a prime-time game are in the past with five teams failing to get a game in one of those high-profile windows this season.
Tennessee, Miami, Arizona, the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets were all given no prime-time games in the initial schedule. Those teams are five of the bottom six in terms of odds to win the Super Bowl this season after the Dolphins won seven games last season and the other four teams went 3-14.
Barring one of the teams getting flexed into a prime-time window late in the season, this would be the first time since 2011 that five teams didn’t get a single prime-time game.
None of those five teams has an island game in another window either.
Even the addition of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza wasn’t enough to get the Raiders into prime time.
This marks the second straight season that the team that picked a quarterback No. 1 overall didn’t make prime time with the Titans getting no games last season after taking Cam Ward first overall.
“Not to be flippant, but we don’t draft our way into prime time. We play our way into prime time,” North said.
The issue of rest disparity has gotten a lot of attention in recent years even though the NFL says its data shows the focus is overblown.
This season has a few major outliers with both the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia playing four games against teams coming off bye weeks, while 14 teams don’t do it even once. The Raiders and Los Angeles Rams each have three games against teams coming off a bye.
The Chargers will have 22 fewer days of rest than their opponents this season, the biggest discrepancy since the 2012 Eagles were at minus-23, according to ESPN.
“Rest disparity is not a thing,” North said. “You do not have a competitive advantage when you’re coming off your bye. You certainly don’t have a competitive advantage when you’re one day or two day or three days more well rested. If that data suggests that there’s a there, we will adjust.”
