The Kansas City Chiefs' 2026 Preseason Schedule Has a Bizarre Wrinkle

The Kansas City Chiefs' 2026 regular season schedule has rightfully earned most of the headlines, but there's an interesting wrinkle in KC's preseason schedule this year.

First, the schedule itself:

Preseason Week 1: Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Rams (Saturday, August 15, 3 p.m. CT)
Preseason Week 2: Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Saturday, August 22, 6:30 p.m. CT)
Preseason Week 3: Chiefs vs. Seattle Seahawks (Friday, August 28, 7 p.m. CT)

Notice anything strange? Think back to Kansas City's regular season opponents.

The Chiefs will host the Rams in Week 1 of the preseason before going to face them in Los Angeles in Week 13 of the regular season. If you think that's weird, look at the preseason finale: KC hosts the Seahawks on August 28 before going to Seattle for Sunday Night Football in Week 7 on October 25!

Teams avoid intra-divisional matchups in the preseason, and it's generally uncommon for teams to play opponents they'll face in the regular season. For the Chiefs to have two regular season opponents on their preseason slate is bizarre.

The preseason scheduling process is not as regimented as the scientific regular season rollout, so we may never know why Kansas City's 2026 preseason features this strange quirk, but it underlines something worth remembering when August rolls around.

Don't expect to see any preseason fireworks

The Chiefs' preseason gameplans will be more starched than Jim Harbaugh's khakis. No wrinkles to be found.

We've grown to expect to see very little of the Chiefs' starters throughout the preseason (though Andy Reid still tends to give them more playing time than many teams in the modern game), and we're certainly not going to see any surprises against a pair of teams who they have on the schedule for meaningful games later in the year.

Even when we become desperate for a peek into the Chiefs' next evolution on offense with new running back Kenneth Walker and returning offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, we're not going to see anything meaningful until Week 1 rolls around.

The Chiefs, Rams, Seahawks and Buccaneers all have legitimate playoff aspirations in 2026. I assume we won't see reigning MVP Matthew Stafford suiting up in Arrowhead, and the Seahawks could sit nearly all their starters for the preseason finale.

These games certainly matter for young players trying to earn a longer look at the NFL level, but they won't bring any schematic revelations for the rest of the Chiefs' 2026 season.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google