When the NFL recently dropped the full 2026 regular-season schedule, it was hard not to notice that there isn't a single instance throughout the upcoming campaign in which the Green Bay Packers get a full 14-day break between games.
After hosting the Minnesota Vikings in Week 10 on Sunday, November 15, the Packers take their bye in Week 11, but it gets cut short due to the fact that they're one of the participants in the league's first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game on Wednesday, November 25, as they'll travel to SoFi Stadium to take on the Los Angeles Rams.
Now, that is one of five mini-byes Green Bay gets, but there are also four short weeks on the slate, so it's certainly one of the more bizarre quirks we've seen in recent years.
But take a look at the Packers' full 2026 schedule and see if something else stands out.
- Week 1: at Minnesota Vikings
- Week 2: at New York Jets
- Week 3: vs. Atlanta Falcons (TNF)
- Week 4: at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Week 5: vs. Chicago Bears
- Week 6: vs. Dallas Cowboys (SNF)
- Week 7: at Detroit Lions
- Week 8: vs. Carolina Panthers (TNF)
- Week 9: at New England Patriots
- Week 10: vs. Minnesota Vikings
- Week 11: BYE
- Week 12: at Los Angeles Rams (Thanksgiving Eve)
- Week 13: at New Orleans Saints
- Week 14: vs. Buffalo Bills (SNF)
- Week 15: vs. Miami Dolphins
- Week 16: at Chicago Bears
- Week 17: vs. Houston Texans (MNF)
- Week 18: vs. Detroit Lions
Did you get it? If you did, good for you.
But if you didn't, how about the lack of back-to-back divisional games? That may not seem like a big deal, but it's an absolute rarity for the Packers, as their schedule hasn't seen such a thing since the NFL realigned back in 2002.
The Packers don't have back-to-back games against NFC North opponents for the first time since realignment
For those who might need a reminder, to accommodate the Houston Texans joining the league in 2002, the NFL realigned into eight four-team divisions, with every team playing one home game and one away game against each of the other three clubs in its respective division.
And again, every year since that went down, the Packers have had at least one instance in which they played back-to-back games against NFC North opponents. In 10 of the 24 years, they've had multiple sets of such games, and there have been three occasions in which they both started and ended the year with back-to-back divisional games.
They've played three divisional games in a row seven different times, and there was even a stretch of four in a row during the 2015 campaign, playing the Detroit Lions in Week 10, the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11, the Chicago Bears in Week 12 on Thanksgiving night, and then the Lions again in Week 13.
On two occasions, Green Bay has played five of its six NFC North battles over the final seven weeks of the season, first doing so in 2012 and then again just this past season.
But as you saw above, this season will obviously be different, as the Packers take on the Vikings in Week 1 in Minnesota, the Bears at home in Week 5, the Lions in Detroit in Week 7, the Vikings in Green Bay in Week 10, the Bears at Soldier Field in Week 16 on Christmas Day, and then the Lions at Lambeau in Week 18.
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