Cardinals land zero prime-time games in NFL schedule release
The Arizona Cardinals will not play a single primetime game in 2026, as they are widely expected to be among the worst teams in the NFL.
When the Arizona Cardinals announced their 2026 schedule, one element was conspicuously absent: prime-time games. For just the second time in the past 15 seasons, the Cardinals do not have a single prime-time game on their slate. The last time this occurred was in 2023, when they entered Jonathan Gannon’s first season with similarly low external expectations.
This time around, it’s Mike LaFleur’s first season, and oddsmakers view the Cardinals as the worst team in the NFL. Their current Super Bowl odds sit at 400/1, three times as long as any other team in the NFC. So, with limited national TV appeal, the Cardinals will play every game on Sunday afternoons.
That’s the case despite the largest-ever slate of standalone games, which includes a new Wednesday Night Football season-opener, a Thanksgiving Eve game and nine international contests. The one exception could be if the Cardinals are flexed into a prime-time spot late in the season. That typically occurs when matchups have significant playoff implications.
In 2024, the Cardinals played two prime-time games, beating the Chargers on Monday Night Football and losing to the Rams on Saturday Night Football late in the season — the latter being a game that was flexed into a standalone time slot. Last year, they lost to the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football and beat the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. The Cardinals have not played on Sunday Night Football — the league’s premier weekly showcase — since Christmas Day 2022, when they lost to the Buccaneers .