It’s not football season yet, but it may start to feel like it Thursday as the Chicago Bears’ 2026 regular season schedule is released.
The NFL is set to announce the league-wide schedule of games starting about 6:30 p.m., according to officials. The Bears, along with the all 31 other NFL teams, will unveil their schedules simultaneously.
The schedule release will give a full look ahead at the Bears’ 2026 football season, and includes divisional matchups, primetime games, holiday and any international games. It will also reveal who the Bears are playing at home, and what games they’ll travel for.
Some of the Bears’ schedule has already been leaked, but the full season remains underwraps until the announcement. Ahead of the reveal, here’s what we we know now, and what to expect.
Bears opponents for the 2026 NFL season
So far, the Bears opponent slate includes nine home games and eight away. The Bears will also face every team from the NFC South and AFC East, along with first-place opponents from the NFC East, AFC South and NFC West, according to an announcement from the team.
Here are the Bears’ home games we know of so far:
Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Here are the Bears’ road games so far:
Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks
Holiday games
At least one game on the Bears’ docket this season will be on Thanksgiving Day.
A source confirmed to NBC Chicago the Bears will travel to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Lions on Thursday, Nov. 26, marking the second time that head coach Ben Johnson will face his former team.
The NFL also announced that the Los Angeles Rams will host the Green Bay Packers on the day before Thanksgiving, marking the first time the league has played a game before the holiday.
On Thanksgiving itself, the Bears and Lions will be followed up by the Dallas Cowboys hosting the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium.
The Thanksgiving night game has not yet been determined, nor has the Black Friday game that will take place at 2 p.m. Central time on November 27.
Are they Bears playing any games abroad?
The league released all of its international matchups Wednesday, ahead of the full NFL schedule release — but Chicago doesn’t appear to be on it.
According to the NFL, are nine international games scheduled for 2026, making a league record. The nine international games will be spread across four continents: six in Europe, one in North America, one in South America and one in Australia.
The full international schedule for 2026 can be found below.
How the schedule is made
Certain NFL executives are responsible for creating the schedule, including executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder, vice president of broadcasting planning Michael North and vice president of broadcast operations Onnie Bose.
The executives aim to match the best contests with the best time and date slots. Along with primetime games on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays.
Bye weeks are another consideration, along with travel, where they generally avoid scheduling more than two straight road games during the regular season. The schedulers also try to ensure a team playing on the road for a Monday night game isn’t playing an away game the next week.
They also have to take into consideration logistical issues, like concerts or other events taking place at the same stadium.
Which NFL teams will have the toughest schedule?
You guessed it: The Bears.
The NFL schedule is formatted in a way that let teams know their 2026 opponents when the 2025 regular season ended, and results from the prior season have an impact.
Three games on each team’s schedule are based solely on where the team placed in the division the previous year, which winds up giving some contenders more exciting matchups. In the Bears’ case, they’ll play a first place schedule in 2026, since they won the NFC North last year.
The Miami Dolphins (.542), Arizona Cardinals (.538), Green Bay Packers (.538) and Kansas City Chiefs (.536) join the Bears in the top-five most difficult schedules for 2026.
How to watch the schedule release
The full schedule will be released starting at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN and the NFL Network. On NBC Chicago, NBC 5 sports anchor Lou Canellis and seven-year NFL veteran Clay Harbour will break down the schedule starting at 7 p.m. on the NBC Chicago streaming channel, on NBC Chicago’s YouTube page and in the video player above.
