The Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams are heading into the 2026 NFL season with expectations of another playoff push, given their strong standing as NFC contenders.
While the NFL has yet to reveal official team schedules, details of some games have been arriving online. That includes a historic matchup between the Rams and Packers in the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game.
Typically, the NFL is known for having several games on Thanksgiving, and it will have those again, but now fans will get to experience even more football throughout that holiday stretch.
Along with that, the Packers will have a Christmas Day game against division rivals, the Chicago Bears, a team that is projected to have the toughest schedule this coming season. That seems to make for almost two holidays when Green Bay will have to focus on football rather than family and festivities.
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However, the Rams, with MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford, have a high-mileage schedule, as they’ll log over 34,000 airline miles in the coming season, second only to the San Francisco 49ers, whom they’ll play in Melbourne, Australia, Week 1.
Whether the travel and taking players away from their families around significant holidays will have an impact remains to be seen. The Thanksgiving Eve game will be in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium, so many of the Packers players and personnel will be away from home.
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It will livestream at 8 p.m. EST on Netflix, another relatively new player in the presentation of NFL games, which frustrated some fans for requiring them to subscribe to various streaming services to watch football. In addition, streaming service Amazon Prime carries “Thursday Night Football” exclusively.
However, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport believes this is all-around a great thing for the NFL to present so many options, especially throughout a holiday week.
“It is really everything I could want out of a holiday, which, really, is just football,” Rapoport commented about the Thanksgiving week slate.
Regarding the Thanksgiving Eve matchup, Los Angeles and Green Bay are coming into this season with different levels of recent postseason success. The Packers couldn’t get past a surging Bears team in the playoffs, but the Rams did so in overtime.
However, the Rams then lost a close NFC Championship Game to the Seattle Seahawks, 31-27. Seattle represented the NFC in the Super Bowl and won, leaving Rams fans feeling another Lombardi Trophy was within grasp.
Many believe they will contend for that spot in the Super Bowl with the Seahawks once again in the 2026-27 NFL season. Sportsbooks also believe it, as the Rams are the current favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel, and other books.
The Rams made big defensive moves by trading for Kansas City Chiefs corner Trent McDuffie and signing Jaylen Watson, which should seriously help their secondary. And the offense is also strong behind the reigning MVP and his weapons, including Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, making this team look elite on both sides of the ball.
However, other teams are looking for significantly better seasons, including Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers, who will get their Pro Bowl defensive end, Micah Parsons, back from his season-ending injury. That could make a major impact on their ability to take down teams like Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears, when necessary.
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