Bears Clips
The first Monday night matchup of 2026, between the Chiefs and Broncos, was announced earlier this week.
Now we know the complete MNF schedule for the coming season.
Unlike the last few years, there are no longer simultaneous Monday night doubleheaders on ABC and ESPN.
As the network has been heavily advertising recently, Super Bowl LXI will be the first broadcast on ESPN in February from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
All games are set to kick off at 8:15 p.m. ET on Monday night.
Week 1: Broncos at Chiefs
Week 2: Giants at Rams
Week 3: Eagles at Bears
Week 4: Falcons at Saints
Week 5: Bills at Rams
Week 6: Commanders at 49ers
Week 7: Cowboys at Eagles
Week 8: Bears at Seahawks
Week 9: Bills at Vikings
Week 10: Chargers at Ravens
Week 11: Bengals at Commanders
Week 12: Panthers at Buccaneers
Week 13: Cowboys at Seahawks
Week 14: Steelers at Jaguars
Week 15: Patriots at Chiefs
Week 16: Giants at Lions
Week 17: Texans at Packers
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Rams and Seahawks played three nail-biters during the 2025 season and the NFL is banking on another one on Christmas night.
The matchup of NFC West teams will cap a three-game slate on Christmas this year. The Friday night game on December 25 will take place in Seattle and it will be broadcast by Fox.
Los Angeles won 21-19 at home last November, but lost 38-37 in overtime in Seattle later in the regular season. The final meeting between the clubs came in the NFC Championship Game and was a 31-27 Seahawks win.
Netflix will kick off the day’s games with a doubleheader that starts with the Packers visiting the Bears at 1 p.m. ET. The Bills will be in Denver at 4:30 p.m. ET in a rematch of last season’s divisional round game that the Broncos won in overtime.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Thursday, there will also be a game on Amazon Prime Video that night. The Eagles will travel to Houston to face the Texans, so all four games around the Christmas holiday will feature matchups of teams that were in the playoffs last season.
The NFL announced the matchups for its first Thanksgiving Eve game and all three Thanksgiving games ahead of Thursday night’s schedule reveal, so the only thing left to announce for the three-day holiday spread of games was the Black Friday matchup.
That game will feature the Broncos visiting the Steelers in a game that will start at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
It will be the first time that either franchise has played a Black Friday game. The NFL first held a game on the day after Thanksgiving in 2023 and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the league is considering ways to add a second game.
That is what they’ve done with the Thanksgiving Eve game. It will involve the Packers visiting the Rams on Wednesday night in a game broadcast by Netflix.
Thanksgiving’s schedule will start in Detroit as usual. The Lions will host the Bears at 1 p.m. ET on CBS and the Eagles will visit the Cowboys on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Thursday’s action will conclude with the Chiefs in Buffalo to face the Bills at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.
The Bears were one of the teams under consideration for a season-opening trip to Seattle, but the NFL is reportedly going with a Super Bowl rematch so the defending NFC North champs will be heading elsewhere.
It will still be a matchup of two teams coming off of playoff berths. The Bears will be in Charlotte to face the Panthers, according to a report from Jordan Schultz.
With the Sunday night and Monday night games for that week already announced, the game will be played on Sunday afternoon.
There will always be a link between the two clubs as the Panthers traded with the Bears to acquire the first overall pick in 2023 and select quarterback Bryce Young. The Panthers wound up with the worst record in the league after Young’s rough rookie season, but the first overall pick belonged to the Bears and they used it to acquire quarterback Caleb Williams.
One of the NFL’s oldest rivalries will reportedly be involved in the 2026 Thanksgiving slate.
The Bears are set to face the Lions in Detroit on November 26, per a report from NFL reporter Jordan Schultz. The two teams also played on Thanksgiving in 2024 and have met on the holiday five times since the start of the 2014 season.
Detroit won both games between the NFC North teams in 2025, which means that Bears head coach Ben Johnson is still looking for his first win against the team that employed him as their offensive coordinator from 2022-2024.
The NFL has already announced that the Eagles will be in Dallas for another of this year’s Thanksgiving games. They’ve also announced that the Lions will be in Buffalo for a Thursday night game in Week 2.
When the Seahawks won Super Bowl LX, there were nine potential options for the Week 1 season-opening game in Seattle. The list is now down to four.
All NFC teams have nine home games this year. The Seahawks are due to host the 49ers, Rams, Cardinals, Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, and Patriots.
With the 49ers and Rams set to play in Australia on Thursday, September 10, with the Cowboys and Giants slated for Sunday night, September 13, and with the Chiefs hosting the Broncos on Monday, September 14, only four options remain to be the road team on Wednesday, September 9: Cardinals, Chargers, Bears, and Patriots.
A Super Bowl rematch wouldn’t be unprecedented. Ten years ago, the Panthers and Broncos crossed paths in the first game of the season, after Denver beat Carolina in Super Bowl 50. The Broncos held on to win the game, 21-20, when Panthers kicker Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with nine seconds to play.
Unless the league announces the opponent before then, the team that will be present for the Seahawks to hang their latest banner will be known on Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.
The Bears confirmed their signing of wide receiver Scotty Miller on Monday and they also announced three other new additions to the roster.
Linebacker Jon Rhattigan is the most experienced member of that group. He joined Miller as a veteran tryout player at the team’s rookie minicamp over the weekend.
Rhattigan had six tackles on special teams in 12 games for the Raiders last season. He also played in one game for the Steelers and was a regular in the kicking game for the Panthers in 2024. He spent his first three seasons with the Seahawks and has 50 career tackles.
Wide receiver Kyron Hudson and linebacker Wayne Matthews also signed with the team. Both players went undrafted last month.
The only corresponding move saw the Bears place wide receiver Squirrel White on the reserve/retired list. White had signed with the team as an undrafted free agent ahead of the minicamp.
Defensive end Cam Jordan said last month that it would be “phenomenal” if things came together for him to return to the Saints for a 16th season, but that has yet to happen and there haven’t been many signs that the status quo in New Orleans is set to change.
If Jordan were to move on, some have wondered if a reunion with one of his former coaches could be in the cards. Dennis Allen spent 10 years as the defensive coordinator and head coach in New Orleans before being fired from the latter job during the 2024 season. He is now running the defense for the Bears and they have not made any additions to their defensive end group so far this offseason, which led to Allen being asked if there’s interest in adding Jordan to the roster in Chicago.
‘‘I don’t know that there’s been a ton of discussion about [signing him]. We feel pretty good about where we’re at and what we have,” Allen said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Yet you never know what opportunities might present themselves down the road.’’
The Bears were 22nd in the league with 35 sacks last season and, for now, it doesn’t sound like Jordan is going to have a role in pushing them up the board in 2026.
The Buccaneers are adding some competition on special teams.
Per Greg Auman of FOX Sports, Tampa Bay has agreed to sign long snapper Scott Daly.
Daly participated in Bucs rookie minicamp over the weekend on a tryout basis.
Auman notes Daly will compete with Evan Deckers to be Tampa Bay’s full-time long snapper.
Daly, 32, spent the last two seasons with Chicago, serving as the team’s LS. He was previously with Detroit for three years.
