{"id":887710,"date":"2026-05-10T19:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/887710\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T19:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:21:25","slug":"the-patriots-may-have-harder-schedule-in-2026-but-heres-what-really-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/887710\/","title":{"rendered":"The Patriots May Have Harder Schedule in 2026, But Here’s What Really Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot was made about the New England Patriots’ schedule last season, and for good reason.<\/p>\n

They had a .429 strength of schedule entering the 2025 season, and rightfully so. The Patriots were coming off of back-to-back dreadful years with only eight combined wins. They were playing a last place schedule, filled with some of the other bottom dwellars across the league.<\/p>\n

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The Patriots pounced on that<\/a>, speeding past a rocky 1-2 start to ultimately finish the season with a 14-3 record and a trip to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Now the expectations — and the naysayers — will be out in full force for 2026<\/a>, the third season for quarterback Drake Maye and second for head coach Mike Vrabel. The Patriots come into the year with a first place schedule, set to face off nine times against playoff teams from a season ago.<\/p>\n

On paper, the schedule is a lot trickier. They won’t get to play against the New Orleans Saints<\/a>, New York Giants<\/a> and the Tennessee Titans<\/a>. Instead, the Patriots will play host to the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers<\/a> while traveling to face off against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"NewFeb 8, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez<\/a> (0) breaks up a pass intended for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Rashid Shaheed<\/a> (22) in the first half in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Patriots’ 2026 opponents are:<\/p>\n

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We’ll find out how the order of games shakes out on May 14th, but here’s how the Patriots can succeed despite a harder schedule.<\/p>\n

Ideal Outcome Is Weaker Front Half<\/p>\n

It’s not all doom and gloom for the Patriots in 2026<\/a>. They’ll get games against the Dolphins and Raiders are home, two young teams with not many expectations. Those two games were the first two matchups for New England<\/a> a year ago, and could be just what the doctor ordered for the Patriots this year.<\/p>\n

It’s always nice to start the year on a winning streak. Both Miami and Las Vegas<\/a> have little to play for with new head coaches, and the Patriots — if they hope to continue their dominance in the Vrabel era — need to beat up on the bad teams.<\/p>\n

\"NewSep 14, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson<\/a> (32) carries the football against the Miami Dolphins during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

If the Patriots end up starting the year with games against Seattle, Denver, Buffalo and Green Bay<\/a>, it could be tricky trying to rebound from a rocky start.<\/p>\n

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Starting Against Tougher Teams Will Test New England’s Strength<\/p>\n

But the Patriots are unlikely to replicate last year’s winning pace. 14 wins is a lot for a team that had no real postseason expectations, and so that number will certainly dip in 2026. That doesn’t mean that the Patriots are a bad team by any stretch of the imagination.<\/p>\n

In fact, they may have a worse record, but could be a better overall football team compared to last season. In plenty of games a year ago, the Patriots had to eek out grimy wins. Now, I know that’s how winning can happen in the NFL and that every win is meaningful, but there were prolonged struggles in wins against the Dolphins, Saints and Bengals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ideally, that won’t happen again.<\/p>\n

\"NewJan 11, 2026; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots linebacker Elijah Ponder<\/a> (91) and linebacker Christian Elliss<\/a> (53) take down Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert<\/a> (10) during the second half in an AFC Wild Card Round game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Maye should feel plenty more comfortable in Josh McDaniels’ offense<\/a>, and the winning expectations and mindset should be seeped into the mentality of the players in the locker room. Winning against bad teams should come a lot easier now that they know how to do it.<\/p>\n

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Remember in the mid-2010s when Tom Brady<\/a>‘s Patriots would just casually knock off a division rival by 20 every other week. That’s what it should feel like for these current teams. Get into dogfights with the contenders — the Bills, the Chiefs, the Broncos — but don’t let the Raiders and Jets hang around.<\/p>\n

Overall, while the schedule looks harder than a year ago, the Patriots<\/a> could end up becoming a better team because of it.<\/p>\n

Make sure you bookmark New England Patriots on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns, and so much more!<\/a><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on www.si.com\/nfl\/patriots\/onsi as The Patriots May Have Harder Schedule in 2026, But Here’s What Really Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot was made about the New England Patriots’ schedule last season, and for good reason. They had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[228,53,241,391,11813,6032,231,258,113,833,22602,7,41,345,125,1159,3907,110,1744,393,1014,262,2444,2443,9737,251,838,259,1167,249,55,56,255,6,57,3698,261,394,1369,596,1626],"class_list":["post-887710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-chargers","tag-bengals","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-chargers","tag-chicago-bears","tag-christian-elliss","tag-christian-gonzalez","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-detroit-lions","tag-drake-maye","tag-elijah-ponder","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-justin-herbert","tag-justin-strnad","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleschargers","tag-mandatory-credit","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-rashid-shaheed","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tom-brady","tag-treveyon-henderson","tag-zach-allen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}