The 2026 NFL schedule is being released this week, the official announcement happening Thursday evening. But as is tradition, plenty of games have been slowly trickling out via reports and Yahoo has been tracking all the leaked games so far.
With the release of the schedule, it gives us another wave of information to interpret for fantasy football. One aspect of the schedule that has been particularly impactful since its inception is international and holiday slates. We’re seeing more and more games being played outside of the United States in different time zones that alter when fantasy managers have to change their lineups each week.
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Below we’re going to go over the 2026 international and holiday schedules to inform you when you’ll need to adjust setting your fantasy football lineups this upcoming season. Note, we’ll continue to update this piece as kickoff times become official and the holiday slate is fully revealed.
Week 1: Rams vs. 49ers in Australia (Thursday night in U.S.)
Week 3: Ravens vs. Cowboys in Brazil (Sunday afternoon)
Week 4: Colts vs. Commanders in London (Sunday)
Week 5: Eagles vs. Jaguars in London (Sunday)
Week 6: Texans vs. Jaguars in London (Sunday)
Week 7: Steelers vs. Saints in Paris, France (Sunday)
Week 9: Bengals vs. Falcons in Madrid, Spain (Sunday)
Week 10: Patriots vs. Lions in Munich, Germany (Sunday)
Week 11: Vikings vs. 49ers in Mexico City (Sunday night)
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The Week 1 matchup between San Francisco and L.A. down under will air on Thursday night in the United States and Friday morning in Australia because of the big time difference — don’t forget the Seahawks will start their title defense on Wednesday, so managers will have to be ready for a busy opening week.
The Week 3 game in Rio de Janeiro will be an afternoon game, so that shouldn’t mess with our usual lineup approach. From Weeks 4-6 we have the usual London games, with the Jaguars playing overseas two weeks in a row. While we don’t have official times for those games in Europe, historically they’ve had a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff time. So be ready to lock your lineups early on Sunday for those weeks.
The Jaguars and 49ers are the two teams that play multiple games outside the country. If you’re factoring that into drafting when August rolls around, it will be a significant amount of travel.
The Rams will also be traveling plenty being on the West Coast and having that Week 1 Australia game. Just something to think about when considering picks like Christian McCaffrey, Mike Evans, Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, etc.
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Holiday Games
Right now, we don’t have the official holiday schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We do know that the Cowboys and Eagles will be one of the Thanksgiving games while the Lions will host a team on that Thursday as well. Christmas lands on a Friday this year so there’s reportedly three games expected to be announced on Christmas Day. The Thanksgiving slate is scheduled for Week 12 while the Christmas slate is during Week 16 (the fantasy seminfal matchups for most leagues).
This story will continue to be updated as more schedule information is released.
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