Kansas City Chiefs opponents 2026: Who’s on the schedule, how easy or hard will their schedule be

Welp, the dynasty is over…or at least on pause for now. The Kansas City Chiefs missed the playoffs in 2025, ending their streak of nine consecutive AFC West titles and guaranteeing that the conference will have a new representative in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2021.

The team got out to a shaky start at 0-2 and still didn’t quite look right even as they recovered and rolled out to a 5-3 record. However, the wheels began falling off following their bye week and their Week 15 loss to the Chargers proved devastating as not only were they eliminated from playoff contention, but also lost Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL. Kansas City’s 2026 offseason will be filled with questions surrounding what this team will look like what this team will look like when Mahomes heals up and that includes the looming retirement decision for Travis Kelce. That also includes who they will select in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft and they are currently slotted to choose in the top-10 for the first time since 2017.

The Chiefs will have eight home games and nine road games next season pending the announcement of the matchups for the 2026 international games. The rotation will include matchups against the entire AFC East and NFC West, along with their usual six divisional games within the AFC West. Since they finished third in the AFC West, they will be matched up with the third-place finishers of the AFC South (Colts), AFC North (Bengals), and NFC South (Falcons) to round out the 17-game schedule.

Kansas City has nine matchups against 2025 playoff teams and the NFL schedule makers will most likely take Mahomes’ injury recovery time into consideration when determining where to slot these games. Whether the superstar QB is healthy or not, the divisional slate should be difficult next year with the Broncos, Chargers, and a presumably improved Raiders squad. Throw in road games at the Bills, Rams, and Seahawks along with the Patriots visiting Arrowhead Stadium and it’s conceivable that the Chiefs will be fighting for a playoff spot in the final weeks of the regular season. But again, everything depends on No. 15’s status when they open the season in Week 1.