We’ll learn when the Commanders will play their 2026 season slate when the NFL schedule is formally released on Thursday evening.
We’ve known which teams the Commanders will play for months. That part was solidified shortly after the season, locking that down based on Washington’s place in the standings.
That also sets up what’s known as strength of schedule, the perceived difficulty of the opposition based on last year’s results.
The Commanders have a .502 strength of schedule, hovering in the middle
of the pack.
Washington’s opposition is considered the 16th-hardest, with them playing home-and-away contests against the NFC East, the entire NFC West and AFC South, plus away games against Minnesota and home games against Atlanta and Cincinnati.
Strength of schedule is not a perfect metric on a slate’s overall difficulty. We often have teams that go from worst to first or in the opposite direction. We have teams that are undergoing massive overhauls or rebuilds that can skew how difficult the opposition is.
For example, teams that got the Chicago Bears or New England Patriots thought there was an easy ‘W’ on the schedule. Those teams were anything but, making playoff runs after productive seasons.
That’s why Sharp Football analysis takes strength of schedule one step further, factoring in expected 2026 win totals. While that’s still not foolproof, it paints a clearer picture of what the Commanders are dealing with.
Sharp explains his method further, stating: “By leveraging projected win totals and current season data, Warren Sharp’s strength of schedule model provides a more accurate and insightful tool for assessing team schedules and forecasting performance.”
Sharp has Washington’s strength of schedule at No. 25, with only seven teams facing a tougher road than the Commanders.
The Commanders also have location working in their favor. They only play three times outside of the Eastern and Central time zones, with games at Arizona and San Francisco, plus a game against the Colts set to be played in London in Week 4.
The actual schedule will have some impact on the Commanders season, especially with the bye week’s positioning and if they have a bunch of short or longer weeks by playing games on days other than Sunday.
We’re ever-so-close to Thursday’s schedule release, the last major event of the offseason, when the structure of the 2026 campaign takes shape.
NFL Schedule 2026 Release Info
Release Time: 8:00 PM EST (Thursday, May 14, 2026)
TV Schedule: ESPN2, NFL Network
Online Stream: FuboTV, ESPN+, Paramount+
