Fans of the New England Patriots can’t seem to escape the strength of schedule narratives. The national consensus seems to be that last year’s favorable schedule, which led to the Patriots reclaiming the AFC East and reaching the Super Bowl, will soon lead to New England falling flat in 2026 against one of the NFL's toughest slates of opponents based on 2025 win percentages.
It might actually be worse now after the NFL confirmed the Patriots' Week 10 trip to Germany to play the Detroit Lions.
New England already had nine road games on its schedule, including West Coast trips to Seattle and Los Angeles. Adding the 7,700 or so air miles to Munich leaves the Patriots with one of the most brutal travel schedules in the NFL for 2026.
As betting market analyst Bill Speros unveiled after the NFL’s international games were finalized, the Patriots now rank No. 5 overall in total air miles with 27,590. For context, the Carolina Panthers have the fewest air miles on their schedule with 8,740.
BREAKING: The 32 NFL teams travel 628,873 miles this season. That equals 25.2 trips around the circumference of the Earth, or 2.63 times the distance to the Moon.
— Bill Speros (@billsperos) May 13, 2026
Six teams will travel more than the distance around the earth the equator - 24,901 miles.
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The Patriots’ road-warrior mentality will be tested like never before in 2026
Head coach Mike Vrabel was able to spin New England’s early success on the road last year into a rallying cry that galvanized the locker room. The Patriots went 8-0 in opponents’ home stadiums in 2025, and they added a ninth win in the AFC Championship Game over Denver.
The Patriots wound up traveling 12,547 air miles during the 2025 regular season, per CBS Sports. That ranked as the sixth fewest in the NFL, so the tables are about to turn in a big way for Vrabel and company.
On a positive note? It’s May, and all this does is give Bills fans and all the other haters out there more time to convince themselves that the Patriots aren’t a real threat, that 2025 was a fluke, and Drake Maye’s breakout season was purely due to an easy schedule. All that does is give Vrabel more fuel for this year’s new rallying cry, which figures to be all about blocking out the noise and proving it all over again.
Those who actually watched the Patriots play last season know their Super Bowl run was no fluke. Vrabel promised to field a team that would take advantage of bad football, and New England did that at an elite level in 2025. Favorable schedule quirks don’t guarantee anything in the NFL. Otherwise, teams like the Browns and Panthers would be trendy picks to win the Super Bowl this year.
As for unfavorable schedule quirks, like nine total road games and now a long road trip to Germany that the Patriots definitely didn't need this year — those can definitely make or break a season. How New England handles a major uptick in travel and more formidable competition as the reigning AFC East champs will end up defining Year 2 of the Vrabel-Maye era.
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