For anyone complaining about the San Francisco 49ers' 2026 regular-season schedule, circling the Week 1 "road" matchup all the way out in Melbourne, Australia, against the Los Angeles Rams should highlight the list.
And the NFL even granted L.A. a Monday night game in Week 2, whereas the Niners have to play on a normal Sunday.
Sheesh.
However, as the Associated Press' Josh Dubow pointed out, Los Angeles has a brutal two-game stretch after Week 2, taking to the road to face both the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles in back-to-back weeks:
And then the Rams have to play back to back road games at Denver and Philadelphia the next 2 weeks while #49ers stay home https://t.co/IagxD5nMN8
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) May 15, 2026
San Francisco, meanwhile, stays home. But that's not all.
49ers can take advantage of (relatively) easy travel schedule after Week 1
There's no getting around the fact the Australia game will be rough. But, the 49ers do have the benefit of three home games in a row to follow up Week 1, including a relatively easy Week 2 showdown against the lowly Miami Dolphins, and Week 3's NFC West tilt against the Arizona Cardinals shouldn't exactly be a massive challenge either.
True, Weeks 4 and 5 hosting the Denver Broncos and visiting the Seattle Seahawks, respectively, will be significantly bigger challenges, but the fact the Niners return home for a Week 6 Monday Night Football showdown against the Washington Commanders reveals something that could ultimately set the Niners up for tremendous success.
The point? San Francisco doesn't leave the Pacific Time Zone at all from Weeks 2 through 6.
It gets even better, too. While the 49ers have to travel for one of their two Eastern Time games—at the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7—that bout is followed by a bye before hosting the rebuilding Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9.
So, aside from Weeks 1 and 7, every game the Niners will play is on Pacific Time. That helps. A lot.
Yes, San Francisco has an extremely rough patch of games to close out the year, meaning it'll be vital to take full advantage of the gametime situation over the first half of the season.
Making the playoffs might entirely depend on it.
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