The NFL unveiled matchups for all nine International Games on Wednesday, setting up a 2026 season that will stretch across four continents and seven countries before the full regular-season Nfl schedule is released Thursday. The league said the year’s global slate will be its most ambitious and longest journey overseas to date.
The opener abroad will come early. The Los Angeles Rams will face the San Francisco 49ers in Australia in the season’s second game, giving the league its debut in that market and putting NFC West rivals and 2025 playoff teams on the same stage. The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks will then start the year in the annual NFL Kickoff Game in a rare Wednesday tilt.
The Jaguars and the 49ers are each booked for two international games in 2026, underscoring how heavily the league is leaning on its biggest overseas markets. The NFL is also starting a three-week stay in the United Kingdom, where familiar franchises will again be part of the rotation, even as the league keeps widening the footprint of a package that has become central to its marketing calendar.
Brazil remains part of that push. The NFL will return there for a third straight year, with the Baltimore Ravens facing the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3. It is a matchup with history: the teams have met seven times previously, and Baltimore holds a 6-1 record. Lamar Jackson won his only head-to-head game against Dak Prescott, 28-25, in 2024, a result that gives the Ravens a recent edge in a series that has rarely been close.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Commanders and the Colts are each going back for a second straight year. Washington lost to the Miami Dolphins in Madrid last season, while Indianapolis beat the Falcons in Berlin. Jayden Daniels is expected to lead the Commanders after an injury-plagued sophomore season, and Daniel Jones re-signed with the Colts after an Achilles tear ended his first season in Indianapolis prematurely. Those returns give the league continuity in two cities where it has been trying to deepen local interest.
What is striking about the 2026 International Games slate is not just the distance, but the way the NFL is using it to open the season. The league has tied marquee rivalry games, Super Bowl winners and repeat travelers into a calendar that begins with spectacle and then fans out across the globe. The schedule release on Wednesday did not just add international dates; it showed how far the NFL is willing to carry its season before most fans have seen a full domestic slate.
