NFL schedule predictions: Gemini AI predicts Week 1 matchups in 2026

The NFL schedule release is the one day every year that sports fans don't mind circling more dates on the calendar. It just goes to show that games don't always matter in the sport that has become a year-round machine. The fall and winter are for the games.

The spring is for player movement. The summer is for preparation. Interest and money only back that up, as the NFL's arrow only seems to point in one direction – up.

So while a schedule release doesn't come across as the most glamorous thing in the world, it actually represents one of the biggest dates on the NFL calendar during the offseason – if there even is one. Social media teams will treat the event like the Super Bowl, content teams will churn out endless record predictions, and fans will run through more permutations than those working the results board on election night. 2026 NFL SCHEDULE: Here's what we already know With the 2026 NFL Draft officially in the past, the schedule release is the next big thing.

And since our experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) predicting the NFL draft produced a wide range of results, USA TODAY Sports decided to test its ability to craft a schedule. On the bright side, it included matchups that can actually happen – which was a pleasant surprise that also included dates, times and TV channels. Here's what Google's chatbot, Gemini , predicted the NFL Week 1 schedule would look like.