It’s officially official! After weeks of rumors and leaks, the Kansas City Chiefs and their fans finally know their full schedule for the 2026 NFL season. Once again, the Chiefs will be featured in multiple primetime games, reaffirming their status as one of the teams to beat.
Patrick Mahomes’ recovery timeline will now be the biggest storyline from now until the season opener vs. the Denver Broncos. He’s coming off a major injury, and the Chiefs must make sure he’s back to full strength before throwing him back into the fire.
Notably, if he’s not healthy for Week 1, the Chiefs might want to wait for another month before getting him out there. That’s because, despite the fans’ and coaching staff’s wishes, they were hit with an early bye in Week 5.
The Chiefs will have to deal with an early week 5 bye
Most teams don’t want to have a bye week so early in the season. It’s better to save them for the final stretch when all players are banged up and can use the additional time to heal and restore their bodies. On the surface, this might be a bit of a disadvantage for KC.
That said, if we look at the glass half full, it might also allow the Chiefs to do just about enough to keep the ship afloat while giving Mahomes more time to get back to full strength. They’ll face the Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, and Las Vegas Raiders to start the season, so a 2-2 start without Mahomes is realistic, maybe even 3-1.
Also, the Chiefs will have an easier schedule than the average Super Bowl contender. As dissected by Sharp Football, the Chiefs will have the 10th-easiest schedule in the league, based on the current betting odds and 2025 win totals for every NFL team.
At the end of the day, the Chiefs will have to beat whoever, whenever. On a positive note, KC did have an early bye week in 2024, and they still managed to make it to the Super Bowl, so it’s not as if they’re doomed from the start.
Then again, this is far from an ideal scenario for any team, much less for one with Super Bowl aspirations and little to no margin for error. The Chiefs have silenced the critics time and time again, so this season doesn’t have to be the exception to that rule.
