We know the opponents the Kansas City Chiefs will face during the 2026 regular season, and aside from the ever hated division rivalries like the Denver Prostrated Peyton’s Broncos and the Las Vegas Brady Simps Raiders (we also play the Los Angeles Chargers twice, if you care about that sort of thing), the Chiefs face off against all the usual suspects when it comes to outer division rivalries.
When you look at the list of unscheduled foes, it’s like reading a rundown of a Chiefs fan’s least favorite
teams in the NFL: the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers, and New England Patriots.
In addition to this, Kansas City will also play the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks — a former division rival in the AFC West, once upon a time — and the Los Angeles Rams, who always make for a fun game in primetime against the Chiefs.
Along with the remaining teams on the docket for Kansas City this season, which of the matchups do we want to see in primetime?
We already know a matchup between the Chiefs and Broncos will be played on “Monday Night Football” to open the season, leaving up to five more possibilities for Kansas City to be scheduled for a nationally televised, standalone evening game.
In my opinion, the Chiefs could see anywhere from four to six primetime games in 2026, and due to the uncertainty of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ knee, I could see the NFL backloading the team’s schedule with primetime games a bit, to give themselves the best possibility of avoiding games with backup signal-caller Justin Fields leading the Chiefs onto the field.
In order of excitement, here are the top-5 2026 matchups to want in primetime:
5. Chiefs at Seahawks
The biggest headline, aside from playing as the defending champions, is that this is newly acquired running back Kenneth Walker III’s revenge game against the team that drafted him.
The only issue is that the Seahawks spent the offseason losing more than the team gained: aside from letting Walker depart via free agency, Seattle also lost edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Coby Bryant, and cornerback Riq Woolen.
The organization did add some interesting pieces, like running back Jadarian Price in the first round of the NFL Draft, but it’s not enough to make you believe this Seattle team has it in them to catch lightning in a bottle twice.
If the NFL wants to give the Chiefs a prime-time game earlier in their schedule, this might be a good contender, since the Walker revenge-game angle could cover for Mahomes if he is not ready to start the season.
4. Chiefs at Rams
A matchup between arguably the NFL’s two best head coaches — Sean McVay and Andy Reid — is enough to make this game worthy of primetime television.
If you add in the possibility that if Mahomes could miss some time, this would be a wild game for him to return for. Place this game on “Thursday Night Football,“ following an early bye week, and you have the return of Mahomes facing off against what might be Rams quarterback Matt Stafford’s last season.
That makes for a very compelling football game, even if it will be hard to top the last time these franchises matched up in primetime; the 54-51 2018 game was on “Monday Night Football.”
3. Chiefs — Raiders
Much like the annual Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys, I believe the long-time AFC West rivalry between the Chiefs and Raiders should always be a staple in primetime. Even if the Raiders have been a train wreck for the better part of three decades, it’s always fun to watch the easiest team to hate in the league flounder in front of millions of viewers across the country.
In addition, it will be compelling to see how fast the Raiders pull the plug on veteran Kirk Cousins as the starting quarterback, then ruin golden boy and first overall pick, quarterback Fernando Mendoza, before giving the reins back to a disgruntled Cousins; all the while the offense is handing the ball off 40 times a game because neither passer has anybody to throw the ball confidently to outside of a talented but often injured tight end, Brock Bowers.
2. Patriots at Chiefs
The only purpose of the evolving storyline surrounding Patriots’ head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL insider Diana Russini, for me, has been to make New England just as unlikable as the franchise has ever been.
And the more unlikable a team is, the more fun it is to root against them.
The unfortunate truth is that the Patriots have a young and talented core, led by one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars, quarterback Drake Maye, and the NFL loves quarterback duels. The Patriots fortified the offensive line by drafting tackle Caleb Lomu in the first round, and improved the team’s pass rush by taking heavy-handed defensive lineman Gabe Jacas in the second round.
This game has all the elements to be a really battle to watch on a big stage.
1. Chiefs at Bills
Like Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks John Elway and Joe Montana, legendary boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, this matchup will continue to be one of the sports universe’s biggest recurring matchups every year as long as the game’s two biggest names (Mahomes and Bills quarterback Josh Allen) continue to captain their teams.
At this point, we have enough empirical data to know that this game is going to be stressful and a tense affair to watch. It always feels like a heavyweight fight when these two franchises face off. The unknown variable is Buffalo’s new head coach, Joe Brady. How will the change in leadership away from longtime coach Sean McDermott affect the team’s success?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, and we will, hopefully on a nationally-televised broadcast.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Bengals, 49ers and the second matchup with Denver.
