It’s been 115 days since the Seattle Seahawks were crowned Super Bowl champions. The wait for the next NFL matchup isn’t nearly as long, as the league announced game times and dates for the 2026 preseason on Tuesday.The Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers are set to play in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6, with the Cardinals as the designated home team. The game will be nationally televised on NBC at 8 p.m. ET.Retired Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald will be inducted into the Hall of Fame that weekend, with former Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly joining him as part of a five-player Hall of Fame class.The preseason slate goes into full swing the following week, with six games on Thursday, Aug. 13. Fernando Mendoza — the 2026 NFL Draft’s No. 1 pick — could make his NFL debut that night, when his Las Vegas Raiders host the Cardinals. The first week of the preseason will wrap up with three games on Friday, Aug. 14, and seven on Saturday, Aug. 15.
None of the preseason Week 1 games will be nationally televised. The league has two nationally televised games apiece in Week 2 and Week 3.Week 2 begins Aug. 20, with the Raiders traveling to Houston in a game that could again feature Mendoza (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET). The other nationally televised Week 2 game will be the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks against the Tennessee Titans, who are coming into this season with a new head coach in Robert Saleh (Sunday, Aug. 23, 8 p.m. ET, Fox).The final week of the preseason begins Thursday, Aug. 27 with defending AFC champion New England Patriots traveling to Cleveland in a game that could feature some mixture of Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and Deshaun Watson settling the starting quarterback spot for the Browns (Prime Video, 8 p.m. ET). On Friday, the Cincinnati Bengals play the Philadelphia Eagles (CBS, 8 p.m. ET).The preseason wraps up with a couple of Saturday games (Aug. 29).Teams have a quicker turnaround this year from the end of the preseason to trim their rosters to 53 players. The deadline got bumped up from the standard Tuesday after the preseason concludes to Sunday, Aug. 30, because of the international schedule in Week 1 of the regular season. Teams have to submit their waiver claims by 1 p.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 31, rather than Wednesday, Sept. 2.The regular-season opener is Sept. 9, featuring a Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and Seahawks. The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams will play Sept. 10 in Melbourne, Australia.Full schedules for preseason Weeks 1, 2 and 3 are below. All times in ET.
