Ranking the NFL’s three biggest revenge games of 2026

The 2026 NFL schedule features former players returning home, coaches confronting the teams that fired them and one immediate Super Bowl rematch. Some reunion games feel manufactured. These three NFL revenge games arrive with enough history and hostility to sell themselves.

Honorable Mention: Robert Saleh faces the Jets

Tennessee opens its season against the New York Jets on Sept. 13, giving Titans head coach Robert Saleh an immediate meeting with the franchise that fired him five games into the 2024 season.

Saleh went 20-36 with New York, so the Jets can argue their decision was justified. That will not make losing to him any less painful.

Making the reunion even better, Tennessee visits the Giants two weeks later. Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will return to MetLife Stadium to face the other New York team that fired a member of Tennessee’s new coaching staff.

3. Kenneth Walker returns to Seattle with the Chiefs

Kenneth Walker III helped Seattle win Super Bowl LX, rushing for 135 yards against New England and earning the game’s MVP award. One month later, the Seahawks watched him leave in free agency.

Kansas City gave Walker a three year, $43.05 million contract. Seattle apparently decided that paying a running back at that level was unnecessary, even after he carried its offense on the biggest stage.

Walker will return to Lumen Field when the Chiefs visit the Seahawks in Week 7 on Oct. 25. Patrick Mahomes provides enough attraction without help, but Seattle’s former postseason hero wearing Kansas City colors turns this into something far more personal.

The Seahawks made a defensible financial decision. Walker now gets three hours to make it look spectacularly stupid.

2. Packers seek payback against the Bears

Green Bay appeared headed for the divisional round last season. Then the fourth quarter arrived and everything caught fire.

The Packers led Chicago 21-6 entering the fourth quarter. They later held a 27-16 advantage before Caleb Williams threw two touchdown passes during the final few minutes of the game. Chicago scored 25 points in the quarter and escaped with a stunning victory.

Green Bay does not have to wait long for another opportunity. The Packers host the Bears in Week 5, bringing one of the NFL’s nastiest rivalries back to Lambeau Field with fresh postseason damage attached.

This is not a former player smiling through an awkward reunion. An entire team watched its season disappear against the opponent it enjoys losing to least. That is proper revenge fuel.

1. Patriots open the season against the Seahawks

The NFL did not bother easing into the new season. New England will visit Seattle on Sept. 9 in a rematch of Super Bowl LX.

Seattle controlled the championship game and denied the Patriots their first title of the Drake Maye era. New England now has to return to Lumen Field, where Sam Darnold and the Seahawks will celebrate their championship in front of the team they defeated to win it.

The Patriots spent the offseason strengthening an offense that struggled to keep pace in the Super Bowl. Seattle enters 2026 attempting to prove its championship was the beginning of something, not the conclusion.

A Week 1 loss would not erase what happened in February. It could, however, prevent New England from spending another year hearing that it was not ready for the league’s best.

No other NFL revenge game carries that combination of stakes, embarrassment and immediate history.