The New England Patriots opened their 2026 regular season with a disappointing 13-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. While they enjoy a mini-bye before starting preparation for their Week 2 home opener versus Pittsburgh, the rest of the league will enter the action as well.
Between Sunday and Monday a total of 14 games are on the menu. Here’s who to root for in each one of them.
Sunday
1 p.m. ET
Chicago Bears (0-0) at Carolina Panthers (0-0): Go Bears! The Patriots do own Chicago’s fifth-round pick in next year’s draft
from the Garrett Bradbury trade, but since the higher of the Patriots’ now-two selections will subsequently transfer to Philadelphia for A.J. Brown, draft position really is no factor here. What is a factor is strength of schedule. | FOX
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-0) at Cincinnati Bengals (0-0): Go Buccaneers! A classic case of picking the. NFC team over the AFC team with no other factors at play. | FOX
New Orleans Saints (0-0) at Detroit Lions (0-0): Go Lions! Strength of schedule plays a role in this, as does the Patriots owning the Saints’ sixth-rounder in 2027 from the Ja’Lynn Polk trade. | FOX
Buffalo Bills (0-0) at Houston Texans (0-0): Go Texans! Both teams project to be in the AFC playoff race, but only one of them is directly fighting with the Patriots for the division title. | CBS
Baltimore Ravens (0-0) at Indianapolis Colts (0-0): Go good game! There is no direct impact on the Patriots, so there is no team to root for. | CBS
SB Nation’s new app is perfect for game day!
SB Nation’s NEW game chat feature in the app is perfect for keeping the latest Patriots updates and conversations at your fingertips.
- Fewer ads
- Seamlessly jump between communities and conversations
- Faster commenting and posting experience!
Download the SB Nation app on iOS or Android.
Cleveland Browns (0-0) at Jacksonville Jaguars (0-0): Go Jaguars! Once again, it’s all about strength of schedule: only the Jaguars are on New England’s this year. | CBS
Atlanta Falcons (0-0) at Pittsburgh Steelers (0-0): Go Falcons! Yes, a Falcons win would negatively impact the Patriots’ strength of schedule, but we are still going with the NFC team over the AFC side in this one. Also, both New England and Pittsburgh would be entering Week 2 with 0-1 records rather than with the visitors carrying momentum into Gillette Stadium next Sunday. | FOX
New York Jets (0-0) and Tennessee Titans (0-0): Go Titans! The Jets are probably a bad team yet again in 2026, but until we have more evidence we are playing it safe. Therefore, it’s the non-division team over the division team. | CBS
4:25 p.m. ET
Arizona Cardinals (0-0) at Los Angeles Chargers (0-0): Go Cardinals! Similar to Falcons-Steelers, the deciding factor here is NFC versus AFC as opposed to New England’s strength of schedule. | CBS
Miami Dolphins (0-0) at Las Vegas Raiders (0-0): Go Raiders! Even if only one of those teams was on New England’s schedule, division affiliation would still serve as the tie-breaker. | FOX
Green Bay Packers (0-0) at Minnesota Vikings (0-0): Go Packers! The Patriots will play both of these teams later in the season, so the rooting decision comes down to the Walter Rouse trade. As a reminder, New England send a sixth-round draft pick in 2027 to Minnesota for Rouse and a seventh-rounder. The worse the Vikings’ record, the better-positioned that pick. | CBS
Washington Commanders (0-0) at Philadelphia Eagles (0-0): Go good game! This game has no direct impact on New England, so unless we want to count the ex-Patriots on each roster — three and two, respectively — we are not giving out a rooting preference. | FOX
8:20 p.m. ET
Dallas Cowboys (0-0) at New York Giants (0-0): Good good game! Another all-NFC East matchup, another game with no team to root for due to a lack of direct Patriots impact. | NBC
Monday
8:15 p.m. ET
Denver Broncos (0-0) at Kansas City Chiefs (0-0): Go good game! Both teams are on the Patriots’ schedule, and both project to be competitive for the AFC playoff slots. You could root for one over the other based on personal preference, but other than that there are no clear factors making us pick one to root for on Monday night. | ESPN/ABC
The following games were played earlier this week:
Wednesday
New England Patriots (0-1) at Seattle Seahawks (1-0) | NE 10, SEA 13
Thursday
San Francisco 49ers (1-0) at Los Angeles Rams (0-1) | SF 27, LA 7 (Melbourne)
