Rich’s NFL Power Rankings: The 2026 Season’s Most Anticipated Games

Rich pulled out his color-coded NFL schedule and ranked his most anticipated games of the 2026 season. The list ran ten deep with multiple ties, and the closer was unapologetically a slate, not a single game.

Number ten was the Buccaneers and Falcons series, which Rich said he was including specifically because of the NFC South revenge layer. Baker Mayfield publicly called out Kevin Stefanski for not reaching out after Stefanski took the Atlanta job, ending the tweet with "Can't wait to see you twice a year, coach." That makes both Tampa-Atlanta meetings appointment viewing in Rich's book.

Number nine is Week 3 Monday Night Football, Eagles at Bears. Rich noted Chicago punked Philadelphia at home on Black Friday last year. The Eagles will arrive in Chicago carrying that, the Bears will arrive coming off a winnable opening stretch, and the result will mean something for both 2026 contenders.

Number eight is Week 18, Steelers at Ravens. Rich chose this game over the Pittsburgh-Baltimore Week 15 meeting because of the stakes that could land on it. If Aaron Rodgers' season has gone the way Pittsburgh hopes, this is potentially his final regular-season game in a Steelers uniform, possibly the AFC North on the line, with a tossed-coaches history between the two staffs already on the books.

Number seven is Cowboys at Packers, Week 6 Monday Night Football. Micah Parsons, if healthy by then, returns to face the Green Bay he played his college ball for. Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark are part of the same return story. Rich gestured at the possibility that Parsons might delay his return specifically to make sure this is the game he plays.

Number six is Seahawks at 49ers, Week 12. Rich picked the slot deliberately. The league loaded so much football into the Thanksgiving week that the Sunday following it risks feeling thin. This game, plus Ravens at Texans on the same Sunday, fixes that. Rich noted the last time these two teams played, the one seed was on the line and Seattle ran San Francisco off its own floor.

Number five is Ravens at Bills, Week 8. The "Under Pressure Bowl," as Chris named it on the spot. Lamar Jackson against Josh Allen, Sunday afternoon, Buffalo coming off a bye.

Number four is the Patriots at Seahawks Super Bowl rematch on opening night. Rich admitted he had wanted Bears at Seattle in this slot instead. He still flagged Drake Maye's national showcase, the potential AJ Brown debut as a Patriot, and the banner raising in Seattle as enough to keep this on the list.

Number three is the Wednesday opener in Melbourne, 49ers at Rams. NFC West football, a Rams home game that does not get played in SoFi, and the early-September buzz of football returning all rolled into one international showcase.

Number two, Rich declared was a cop-out. He could not pick one. If forced, he picked Chiefs at Bills. But he immediately listed a string of others that all belong in the bucket: Packers-Rams, Bears-Lions, Eagles-Cowboys, Broncos-Steelers, all of them potentially massive if everyone is healthy.

Number one is the Christmas Day slate. Packers-Bears. Bills-Broncos. Rams-Seahawks. Rich specifically called out the Seattle game, the location of the most chaotic finish the Rams have had in recent memory. Three games on a single day, in his read, beats any single game on the schedule.

Mike Del Tufo pointed out that the list missed one. New England-Seattle is technically Wednesday, not Thursday, by the time the Melbourne game's date crosses the international time zone.

Rich confirmed it. Wednesday opens the season. Friday morning in Melbourne is still Thursday night domestically. The league has built a schedule with so many color-coded windows on Rich's spreadsheet that, by his count, it now has more colors than a rainbow.

He is not complaining. He is making time for all of it.