49ers 2026 NFL Schedule Released for Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey's Playoff Push

Coming off a resurgent 2025 despite injuries to many key players, the San Francisco 49ers have their sights set on getting back to the Super Bowl going into the 2026 season.

The NFL revealed the full schedule for all 32 teams on Thursday. It was already known that the 49ers and Los Angeles Rams would play in Week 1 on Sept. 10 in the league's first regular-season game in Australia.

Full schedule information available on the team's official website.

Analysis

San Francisco's non-divisional opponents this season include the NFC East and AFC West, as well as the third-place finishers in the NFC North (Minnesota Vikings), NFC South (Atlanta Falcons) and AFC East (Miami Dolphins).

In terms of 2025 records, the 49ers' strength of schedule is the 18th-hardest in the NFL (.497). They do play in arguably the toughest division in the entire league. The NFC West became the first division ever to produce three teams that won at least 12 games in a season.

San Francisco was among that group, along with the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (14-3) and Rams (12-5). Those three teams all defeated the other once in the regular season, but Seattle got the last laugh by beating the 49ers and Rams in the playoffs en route to winning the Super Bowl.

All three teams once again have loaded rosters on paper and figure to be battling it out for NFC West supremacy.

Pivotal Matchups

It's hard not to immediately start with the four games against the Rams and Seahawks. The 2025 division title and No. 1 seed in the NFC came down to a Week 18 game between the Seahawks and 49ers at Levi's Stadium that Seattle won.

San Francisco's wins over the Seahawks and Rams came very early in the year when its roster was still largely healthy. Nick Bosa made the game-winning play in Week 1 to force a Sam Darnold fumble when the Seahawks were driving down the field.

The defense made two key stops, including a fourth-and-1 stuff in overtime, in Week 5 against the Rams.

When the 49ers played both teams later in the season, with Bosa and Fred Warner out due to season-ending injuries, they were outscored 55-29 and allowed 762 yards.

Other potential measuring-stick games on the schedule include home matchups with the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings, as well as a road game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Since Kyle Shanahan became the 49ers head coach in 2017, he is 0-5 against the Chiefs including two Super Bowl losses. The average scoring margin in those games is 11.2 points.

The Chiefs don't look as formidable on paper now as they did in those past games, but Patrick Mahomes has clearly had San Francisco's number. There's no shame in that because Mahomes has dominated virtually every team in the NFL, but a 49ers team that wants to be regarded as a Super Bowl contender should at least be able to put up a strong effort against them.