As NFL Schedules begin to leak, how many primetime games will the Arizona Cardinals have in 2026?

Posted by Admin May 11, 2026 NFL

The NFL announced their first Sunday Night Football matchup of the 2026 NFL season, and not a shock to anyone, it involved two NFC East rivals.

We knew it would not be the Cardinals on any type of National Game early in the season, and while the Dallas Cowboys (7-9-1) and New York Giants (4-13) were not exactly juggernauts in 2025, they both are way bigger franchises in terms of fans and draw than the Cardinals.

It does bring up an interesting question: How many national games do the Arizona Cardinals get in 2026?

For those that don’t remember, here are the home and away teams they will face:

Home: Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, Detroit Lions

Away: Rams, 49ers, Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints

The Cardinals play the Saints and 49ers, both teams have international games this year, so that could be a possibility as national games (not necessarily primetime), as the Saints and Niners both are the “home” team in those scenarios.

From there, you have maybe two more options.

First – The standard NFC West Thursday Night Football game, but that may not be something the NFL likes this year for the Cardinals with such a disparity last year between the Cardinals and the division. Think about it, in the first two games the Cardinals were 0-2, losing by a combined four points on last second field goals, and in the other four games they were 0-4 and lost by a combined 167-81, or an average of 41-20. Does the NFL want that on one of their primetime games?

Second – You have the Raiders, Giants, Saints, and Commanders. We discussed the Saints, I don’t know if it is good for the relations with Paris to subject them to the Cardinals/Saints on October 25, but it would be an intriguing Thursday Night game. Two young teams, hopefully playing well early in the season. You can say the same for the Raiders and Giants.

Then you have the Commanders, who were supposed to be legitimate contenders, had the reigning Rookie of the Year, and were in a division that ended up being awful. Yet, their young QB was injured a lot and regressed when he did play, they blamed and fired the offensive coordinator, and now they are looking to regain that growth from an NFC Championship run a couple of years ago.

All that leads me to one thought… the Cardinals get one national game in 2026.

I am going Cardinals vs. Raiders on Thursday Night Football in the first five weeks of the season to make sure both teams are still relatively competitive record wise and the game has some value. Think about it, first overall pick Fernando Mendoza vs. third overall pick Jeremiyah Love. Maybe there is a Carson Beck angle in there somewhere, who knows.

What do you think?