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Whenever these heavyweights are slated to meet up, it should be a showcase game. I chose the game in Seattle because that’s where two of their three epic meetings last season took place. 

The Week 16 battle at Lumen Field was NFL Media’s No. 1-ranked Game of the Year for 2025 -- a wild comeback by the Seahawks that ended in overtime on Seattle’s third two-point conversion in the final 15 minutes of the game. That win gave the Seahawks a major edge in earning the NFC’s top seed, kicking the Rams down to the fifth seed.

The rematch was another thriller that came down to the final play, sending the Rams home and the Seahawks to Super Bowl LX, which they’d win handily. Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold each threw for 300-plus yards, three TDs and no picks in the teams’ third classic battle of the season. Doesn’t get much better.

It’s not a stretch to suggest that these division rivals could be the top two Super Bowl contenders entering the season. Both regular-season matchups should be fantastic, and I’d love to see a third one again.

Anytime Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen lock horns, it’s a reason to celebrate. This year’s meeting of the two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks might carry a little additional zest in the Chiefs-Bills rivalry.

²Ñ²¹³ó´Ç³¾±ð²õ’ torn ACL and the Chiefs missing the playoffs have raised the anxiety level in Kansas City, especially as Travis Kelce enters what could be his final NFL season. Of course, they’re anxious in Buffalo, too, with the Bills losing the division last season and failing to take advantage of a wide-open AFC playoff field.

These teams have met 10 times in the 2020s, and it’s an even 5-5 split. Buffalo has dominated the regular-season series 5-1, but the Chiefs are 4-0 in playoff matchups.  

This is one of the showcase battles at new Highmark Stadium, and it should be one of the more anticipated matchups of the 2026 season, as it has been for the better part of a decade. 

I honestly don’t care where it is after last season, but the first meeting in Chicago will carry a little extra tension to it. Bears-Packers has been a rivalry for 105 years, and all three meetings last season -- in a 34-day span in December and January -- helped add a dramatic new chapter to the conflict. 

The Packers won the game up in Green Bay and arguably outplayed Chicago on the whole in the three meetings, but the Bears conjured up late magic twice in their two miracle wins at Soldier Field. Green Bay had a the first game in Chicago with just over two minutes remaining and were at 90-plus to win with less than five minutes left in the playoff loss.

For several years prior, the Packers had been the big brother in the rivalry, soundly dominating the series prior to 2025. Now Ben Johnson has given the Bears belief that they can be the big dogs in the relationship again, and in one season, he built an offense that everyone wants to watch.

The timing of this game could be significant. There’s a chance the Packers could be without Micah Parsons or Tucker Kraft -- or both -- though GM Brian Gutekunst is optimistic that the two stars will return early in the 2026 campaign. Stacking the matchups later on (as the league did in 2025) might be the way to go. Both teams should be contenders again.

When these dyed-in-the-wool rivals face off for the first time next season, it will mark a significant turning of the page. Neither John Harbaugh nor Mike Tomlin will be stalking the sideline for these teams for the first time in nearly two decades.

In the final regular-season game of the 2025 season, with the divisional crown and playoff berth up for grabs -- loser goes home -- the Ravens and Steelers were slogging along for three-plus quarters in typical AFC North mud fight style. Then all hell broke loose in an unhinged final nine minutes that saw Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson trade haymakers and match scores in a four-TD barrage.

That the game came down to an anticlimactic missed field-goal try is besides the point. The result had huge ramifications, leading to Harbaugh’s ouster in Baltimore and, after the Steelers’ playoff loss, Tomlin stepping down in Pittsburgh.

Now Mike McCarthy and Jesse Minter are set to pilot the next phase of the rivalry. Coming off an injury-plagued and frustrating season, Jackson will look to reassert his dominance. But who’ll be quarterbacking for the Steelers? Rodgers remains in limbo. We might know the entire NFL schedule before he makes any decisions. 

I decided to go with the game in Foxborough because the Patriots reclaimed the AFC East in 2025 but also lost their home game against the Bills, who are likely to be their biggest impediment to repeating as division champs. 

The Patriots won up in Buffalo last year, and that game is sure to be big as well, so you really could make a case for either matchup. Drake Maye outplayed Josh Allen in that game, and Maye’s emergence as an MVP candidate has certainly added some volume to this renewed rivalry.

New England emerged from a weak AFC field (and a soft schedule) to make the Super Bowl, but the blowout loss to Seattle has been followed up by offseason drama surrounding head coach Mike Vrabel. Can the Bills win back the division and become a Super Bowl contender again? The game at Gillette Stadium could reveal quite a bit on both fronts.

Hello, Melbourne! 

We’ve known the time and date for Australia’s first-ever NFL game for a while now, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. These two division rivals will meet down under on Sept. 11, with the Rams the designated home team. 

Most teams don’t have to take 16-hour flights for home games, but don’t tell that to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who with facing the Rams on neutral ground. After all, the 49ers have only lost to the Rams once in their last four trips to Los Angeles. 

Now they’re on neutral turf in what will be a key early divisional game -- with both teams currently looking up at the champion Seahawks. The Rams made it to the NFC Championship Game, and the 49ers went 12-5 and won a road playoff game despite Brock Purdy and several key defenders missing big chunks of the season.

Australia is getting a good one. Shanahan and Sean McVay are going into the 10th season of their rivalry as two of the NFL’s best head coaches, and their respective teams are each built to win now.

The AFC Championship Game between these teams was anything but an artful affair, with Bo Nix getting hurt late in the game the week prior and being unable to play. As a result, the Patriots went into Denver and came out with a 10-7 win that had the Broncos feeling bottomed out.

Their chance for revenge comes in the game at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots were better on the road, going 9-0 including the playoffs last season, than they were at home, where they were 8-3. The Broncos, meanwhile, won six straight on the road to close out last season and have to feel that they missed a golden chance to make the Super Bowl.

Nix also has unfinished business, missing the AFC title game with the injury and somewhat overlooked amid Denver’s success last season. He and Drake Maye are fellow members of the draft class of 2024, and this will be the first time they’ll face off in the NFL.

Will the Patriots and Broncos be prime contenders again? This contest could tell us a lot about whether that’s the case. Both teams were in their fair share of close games, too, especially the fourth-quarter Broncos, so the chances of a tight, tense game here feel high.

This is one of those fun, intraconference games that a whole lot of non-Chiefs and non-Seahawks fans will gladly tune into. Last year’s champs against Mahomes and Andy Reid's three-time winners, who are now in a reconstruction phase after a rare down season.

This also will be known as the Kenneth Walker III game, with the Seahawks’ Super Bowl MVP joining the Chiefs this offseason in a semi-surprising free-agency plunge. Walker was a fan favorite, and he might earn a few pre-game cheers, but also expect the 12s to give him an earful the rest of the day.

It will be interesting to see when this game is scheduled considering ²Ñ²¹³ó´Ç³¾±ð²õ’ health. I expect it to be a bit later in the season considering we don’t truly know if Mahomes can return for Week 1 and be close to star-level by that point.

Walker and Mahomes versus the Seahawks’ swarming defense won’t be the only storyline, though. The Chiefs still feature some defensive firepower, and this will be Sam Darnold’s first time facing the Chiefs since a 35-9 blasting six years ago when he was still with the Jets.

Why would two non-playoff teams from 2025 facing off qualify as such a big game? Well, the storylines do run fairly deep with this one.

Now a Raven, Trey Hendrickson will be returning home to face his former Bengals squad. It will actually be his first game back in Cincinnati after leaving in free agency this offseason. Hendrickson used to be a thorn in the side of Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, but now he’ll be hunting Joe Burrow and his former team in the Jungle. 

Burrow and Jackson both are coming off injury-plagued seasons and are arguably entering career crossroads of sorts. Jackson has a new head coach this season, and after missing the postseason three straight years, the Bengals’ Zac Taylor likely needs a playoff appearance to avoid questions about his future in Cincinnati.

The Bengals have lost five of their last six games to the Ravens, including three straight in Cincy since beating them in a home playoff game in the 2022 season.

This Super Bowl rematch might not do it for some considering the way the Seahawks stomped the Patriots for the better part of four quarters. But we’ve seen Super Bowl losers come back to beat the team they lost to, including the Eagles in 2023, so there’s some recent historical precedent.

You just know that Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye will have pored over that Super Bowl game tape to find out better ways to attack Seattle’s pressure -- and perhaps New England will have better pass protection after some offseason additions. Maye also was playing with an injured shoulder in February and likely would love a second crack at the team that sacked him six times.

The Seahawks were pretty terrific in Mike Macdonald’s second season as head coach, but they have shown some vulnerability at Lumen Stadium, going 9-8 there in the regular season in his two seasons with the team (vs. 15-2 on the road). The Patriots won’t be sneaking up on them, but they could surprise in this matchup.