J.B. Long

Seven island games. One on a new continent.

Four of the first five weeks in prime time. Three additional kickoffs assigned to the Sunday afternoon game-of-the-week windows.

Arguably the biggest home schedule in franchise history. Plus, a refreshed and enhanced closet of uniforms to debut throughout.

The Los Angeles Rams are the favorites, and they're going to be featured throughout the NFL's 2026 broadcast slate.

There's no question it's a grueling path back to the postseason. Thankfully, it's also a fair setup, giving the Rams the opportunity to begin their journey half a world away and finish it at home in February.

Sending Out an SOS

Even before the schedule release, we knew the Rams were going to have a gauntlet to run in 2026.

Already playing out of the best division, a second-place schedule meant like-place finisher matchups at Tampa Bay, at Philadelphia, and versus the Bills.

The best way to model forward-looking strength of schedule is to use projected win totals as the predicate. Based on that analysis, the Rams havethe fifth-most challenging schedule, trailing only the Cardinals (the only NFC West team that doesn't get to play the Cardinals), Dolphins, Panthers, and Cowboys.

Indeed, the Rams have a more difficult path than do the 49ers (8th easiest, albeit with two international games) and Seahawks (11th hardest).

Here's a good visual, illustrating that the Rams are expected to be very good, but also have the toughest path among Super Bowl contenders.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie Home, Road, Road

After the Rams get back from Australia in Week 1, the set up for the rest of September is critical.

Mercifully, this is as close to ideal as they could have requested.

First, a bonus day to recuperate, thanks to Week 2 versus the Giants falling on Monday Night Football. In fact, the Rams will be home from Oz on Friday evening, some 48 hours before the Giants even kick off Week 1 versus Dallas.

Next, the first of three road back-to-backs, but also one of the shortest road trips on the schedule in Week 3, and it's Sunday Night Football in Denver.

Lastly, at Philadelphia in the early window in Week 4. Am I a bit surprised that Rams-Eagles is a 10 a.m. PT kickoff for the second year in a row? Sure. Would I prefer that trip in the daylight of early fall to winter in prime time? Absolutely.

Here's another way of framing the post-Australia travel: The Rams must fly past the Mountain Time Zone just once (Philadelphia) in Weeks 2 through 8.

Philadelphia Freedom

Indeed, the Rams are going back to Philadelphia in early October and playing the Eagles for the fifth time in 36 months. That's a lot!

Since the question always comes up (we've confronted it with the Packers and Saints in recent seasons), let's spell out exactly why this has become such a repetitive rivalry of late. Here's the recent series history with the Eagles, along with an explanation of why that matchup occurred:

2026 Pure schedule rotation. The NFC West faces the NFC East every three seasons, and every six years, the Rams travel to Philadelphia by NFL schedule architecture (as they did most recently during the pandemic campaign of 2020).

2025 Like-place-finisher formula. The Rams and Eagles both won their division the prior year.

2024 Playoffs Self-explanatory.

2024 - Like-place-finisher formula. The Rams and Eagles both finished runner-up the prior year.

2023 - Schedule rotation. The NFC West crossed over with the NFC East, and every six years, the Rams host the Eagles by NFL schedule format.

Trade deadline watch

The 2026 NFL trade deadline is later this fall, scheduled for Tuesday, November 17, 2026 (the Tuesday following Week 10 of the regular season).

So it's important to consider the Rams schedule and potential record in front of this threshold.

In 2023 and 2024, the Rams had to rally from seemingly insurmountable early-season deficits to make the playoffs. Given the stage of their roster construction, there wasn't much incentive to make a move either fall.

In 2025, the Rams absolutely could have been buyers at 6-2, with a strong belief they should have been 8-0. They stood pat, merely adding a bit of corner depth with Roger McCreary.

In 2026, the Rams will be 10 games in, coming back from road trips to Washington and Arizona, going into their bye, when the deadline hits. Can they earn a record of 6-4 or 7-3 or even better?

If so, perhaps they fortify what's regarded as the most complete roster in the NFL already.

Feast or Famine?

Coming off that Week 11 bye, the longest Thanksgiving drought in the NFL continues.

Technically.

Playing host to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Eve strikes me as the perfect recipe for having your turkey and eating it, too.

Home for the holiday? Check.

Prime time? Check.

Ratings bonanza? Check.

Free to feast on Thursday while watching three other NFL games? Check and check.

Get your tickets, now.

Handling the Hawks

As for Christmas in SeattleHere's hoping it goes as well as the last time the Rams played on December 25th.

Given how the two trips to Lumen Field played out last season, we were all dialed in to see how the league and its network partners treated Rams-Seahawks and the rematch of the NFC Championship Game.

They treated them like playoff games.

If there's anything to balk at with the Rams' 2026 schedule, it's finishing with two of the last three against Seattle. Who knows how that plays out competitively. I'm a believer that you should play your division once early in the schedule and once late in the year ideally three of the first five games and three of the last five games.

It's not a priority for the league, and I totally understand why it's a losing argument. So the only way to redeem it is to go ahead and sweep the Seahawks, including in the postseason, if necessary.

The Stretch Run

For a team that plays Thanksgiving and Christmas, contending with six weeknight games in total, the NFL gave the Rams a shot at navigating it and perhaps even leveraging it to their advantage.

There may not be a more difficult closing stretch than what's presented to the Rams in their final seven games.

The bye sets up the holiday with the Packers.

There's a bonus day before the Chiefs come to SoFi the following Thursday.

That TNF showdown creates a mini-bye before a trip to Santa Clara.

There's even a chance that the Week 17 trip to Tampa falls on a Saturday and the Rams get an extra day before the finale versus Seattle.

Admittedly, that's a bit granular. Zoom out a bit, and a simple summation is that the Rams only leave the west coast once after Week 9.

Weather or Not

There wasn't much foul weather potential on the 2026 road schedule, and that Christmas night in the Pacific Northwest figures to be the only regular season game with temperatures anywhere near freezing.

Tampa, Florida sounds like a great place to ring in the New Year.

For all the rest of our schedule release reactions, here's the latest Between the Horns with Camryn Irwin and Maurice Jones-Drew.