Before the NFL reveals its regular season schedule, it first likes to reveal when the revealing will happen. And before that, it teases that an announcement about the announcement is on the way. So naturally, in an email blast sent Thursday evening, the league informed fans that the “schedule release is almost here!” Except nobody seems to know exactly when the “almost here” actually is.

Oddly enough, the biggest reason for this has less to do with football and more to do with global pop stars taking over NFL stadiums. This fall, several NFL stadiums have already been booked for concerts of Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and other artists. FOX Sports’ Greg Auman has pointed out some instances of these concerts clashing with the NFL timetable, which is keeping the league busy on the drawing board.

“Usher and Chris Brown play AT&T Stadium on Thursday/Saturday/Sunday of Week 1, so the Cowboys will open the season on the road (or play Monday),” Auman shared on X. The same for Usher and Chris Brown in Atlanta in Week 9, playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday and Sunday and at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday of Week 10. Bruno Mars plays Tampa on Sunday, Sept. 13, so Bucs will either be on the road in Week 1 or play a different day.

“Same for Mars with Dolphins in Week 2 and 49ers in Week 5, with Sunday dates in NFL venues. Ed Sheeran plays Saturday night concerts in seven NFL stadiums during the season, meaning those teams will likely be on the road that week or playing Thursday/Monday.” And that’s where things start to get complicated, and it actually could have a bad effect on teams, especially Dallas.

Take Ed Sheeran, for example; his Saturday night stadium concerts do look harmless since they leave Sunday open for football. But look behind the scenes, and the reality is far more complicated. You see, these are big concerts, and they require certain protocols, setup, and sound checks, which go as early as Friday. Meanwhile, the NFL’s new 2026 safety protocols also mandate a strict 48-to-72-hour “recovery window” after large non-football events to ensure turf stability and player safety. So, this effectively means Thursday Night Football is almost impossible in those venues. The turnaround is simply too tight.

That one constraint alone could push several teams, especially in the NFL South, into extended road stretches between weeks 4 and 9, just to avoid the stadium conflicts. Here is a list of the NFL teams whose 2026 season schedules will be affected by these concerts:

• Dallas Cowboys
• Philadelphia Eagles
• Atlanta Falcons
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• New England Patriots
• Indianapolis Colts
• Carolina Panthers

And as seen on the list, Dallas stands at first and they truly might be walking into one of the trickiest calendars of the league. Their home stadium, which is the AT&T Stadium, is already booked for major concerts that directly overlap with football weekends. Usher and Chris Brown are scheduled to perform there during Week 1 of the 2026 season, which mostly rules out a home opener in Dallas on Sunday. Instead, the Cowboys may have to start the season on the road or possibly shift into a primetime Monday slot. That’s not all.

The same artists also have a stop planned at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles during Week 10, which is home of the Rams and Chargers, and this could also complicate any Cowboys matchup in that window unless the league moves it to a non-traditional slot like Thursday or Monday night. Then Bruno Mars will take over the Buccaneers’ stadium in Week 9, which could affect a potential Cowboys-Bucs matchup. Then comes Ed Sheeran’s Week 7 concert at AT&T Stadium. That could push the Cowboys on the road or into a primetime Thursday or Monday slot if the team doesn’t have a bye.

The Cowboys are among a good number of teams hoping to bounce back this season, after a very disappointing campaign last year. The NFL schedule will soon reveal how much slack they are given on the calendar.

Some insiders like CNBC’s Alex Sherman are pointing toward May 13 or 14, and others are saying that it could slip into the following week. Meanwhile, the NFL vice president of broadcast planning, Mike North, has been blunt, saying nothing is official until Commissioner Roger actually gives it a final nod. And if you dig more, you’d understand that the league is juggling more than just stadium availability at this time.

A separate five-game media package involving streaming partners like Netflix and YouTube and possibly other streaming services is also apparently being negotiated. These are negotiations that are directly tied to key matchups like the Australia season opener and the holiday games. And until they are resolved, the parts of the schedule do remain in limbo.

“These five games that are out there as a package that are being negotiated right now, I’d love to know when and where those games are going to be played so we can schedule them accordingly,” Mike North explained. And that really sums the entire situation. However, most fans would know that this is almost a pattern now.

The NFL’s schedule release delay routine is actually nothing new!

The NFL delaying their announcement isn’t a new thing; in fact, you can almost call it a part of their tradition now. Over the past few years, the league has pulled this move out again and again. Take in 2023, for example, when fans came to know on May 8 that the schedule would drop on May 11. Then in 2024, the announcement came on May 13 for a May 15 release. In both cases, the NFL actually waited until the last moment to get confirmation about when the big moment would come.

So this time around, it doesn’t feel shocking to many. Moreover, there is also some speculation that the 2026 release could again shift slightly. NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North has already made it clear that even the “mid-May window” isn’t set in stone.

“Most fans know full well that the schedule comes out in mid-May now,” North said on the It’s Always Game Day in Buffalo podcast. “That’s what we’ve done the last five or six years. Is there any magic to May 12, 13, 14? No. Is there any real downside to May 19, 20, or 21? No.” This flexibility has become a standard thing.

Last year, the NFL didn’t confirm the release date until April 24, during the draft, and still released the schedule almost three weeks later on May 14. This year the league has only offered us teasers and not even a date.

The pattern seems to be clear; the NFL is planning to keep the timing open-ended until everything on paper is aligned for them. As North mentioned, the window is more of a target to them than a rule, with even the third week of May still in play.

2026 NFL international games

For now, we know that there will be a record nine international games this season, the most in the history of the sport. The home teams have been confirmed for each, but the Australia and Brazil games are the only matchups where we know both teams are taking part.

Melbourne, Australia: San Francisco 49ers vs. Los Angeles Rams on Thursday, September 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Baltimore Ravens vs. Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, September 27

Other international games on the schedule:
Paris, France: Saints vs. TBA
Mexico City, Mexico: 49ers vs. TBA
London, UK: Jaguars vs. TBA (Wembley Stadium)
London, UK: Jaguars vs. TBA (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)
London, UK: Commanders vs. TBA (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)
Munich, Germany: Lions vs. TBA
Madrid, Spain: Falcons vs. TBA