49ers Schedule 2026: Could one other Thursday Night sport get flexed?

While the San Francisco 49ers get the brief finish of the keep on with journey miles, gauntlets, and different NFL scheduling wizardry, there’s one silver lining to take: the Thursday Night Football video games. The 49ers solely have one. Well, for now.

Now they do have two Thursday video games. The 49ers start their 2026 season in Australia in opposition to the Los Angeles Rams, however that’s the first sport of the season, and there’s no prior sport they should speed up relaxation and restoration from. Their second Thursday sport is the dreaded Thursday Night Football relaxation—a Week 15 contest in opposition to the Los Angeles Chargers.

That is the one sport the 49ers must play on a shortened week. It will get a bit higher: If you take a look at the league schedule for Weeks 13-17 (when Thursday video games might be flexed), it seems to be even much less seemingly.

The 49ers have 5 prime-time video games, tied for the third-most. The Rams sit alone with essentially the most at seven whole. Five video games is the widespread quantity you see for aggressive groups. The absolute maximum number of prime-time video games a crew can play in is eight.

That means the Rams might be flexed into yet another prime-time sport; Thursday Night, Monday Night, or Sunday Night.

And that is why you see the 49ers sitting at 5 video games, or some groups at six. The NFL doesn’t need to max out a crew’s prime-time schedule, and stated crew is having a prepare wreck of a season. On the flip aspect, in addition they don’t need to take a crew that has issues locked up in Week 15 and subsequently benching starters for the sport.

With that stated, the 49ers have three video games they are often flexed into, and for them to be flexed into Thursday Night, it must be in Weeks 13 via 17. The 49ers have one sport already on Thursday in opposition to the Chargers in Week 15. So that leaves us with these three video games:

We’ll begin with the Giants. The scheduled sport for Week 13 is the Chiefs at Rams. That goes to be a serious draw for scores, supplied the groups don’t collapse. Knowing that, we will relaxation straightforward that the 49ers/Giants can’t do something to bump who’s already on the schedule. Should the Rams/Chiefs be experiencing a nightmare season, there are different video games extra engaging: The Cincinnati Bengals vs. the Cleveland Browns and the Buffalo Bills vs. the New England Patriots come to thoughts.

Next, there’s Week 14. I doubt this could occur, additionally. As you’ve simply learn, the Rams would have simply completed up a Thursday Night Football look and be the beneficiaries of per week of relaxation vs. the 49ers’ three days. Look, the NFL has finished sketchy issues to the 49ers by way of relaxation prior to now, however there’s no method they’d have one crew with three days of relaxation go up in opposition to a crew that had per week. At least, I’d wish to suppose they wouldn’t try this. I seemed round for the rule that claims this isn’t attainable, however couldn’t discover something. Rule or not, it simply doesn’t seem to be one thing the NFL would pull.

That leaves us with Week 16. The scheduled sport is the Houston Texans on the Philadelphia Eagles, an honest sport. You could be pondering the league would need the 49ers to play the Chiefs on prime-time, however there’s one downside: The Chiefs play Monday Night Football in Week 15 in opposition to the New England Patriots. That would give the Chiefs simply two days of relaxation earlier than internet hosting the 49ers.

There’s no method the league does that to Kansas City.

We then, after all, have the Week 15 matchup in opposition to the Chargers. Could the 49ers be flexed out of it? If one of many groups suffered a catastrophe, certain, however flexes aren’t as widespread as you may suppose. As it stands, it seems to be just like the 49ers have a really excessive likelihood of not getting flexed into Thursday Night Football for 2026.

Below are the flex guidelines from the NFL. Do you see every other prime-time video games the 49ers may get flexed into?