Best revenge games on the 2026 NFL schedule: Players and coaches facing former teams

Best revenge games on the 2026 NFL schedule: Players and coaches out to prove a point against former teams

The NFL schedule is never just a schedule. It is a grudge map.

Every year, the league hands us 272 games, and buried inside the divisional rematches and primetime inventory are the ones that feel a little more personal. The quarterback who got written off. The coach who got fired. The receiver who got shipped away for picks.

Sure, an obvious revenge game is Patriots-Seahawks after Seattle crushed New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. But a championship rematch already sells itself. 

The juicier narratives are usually a layer deeper. It is not always about rings. Sometimes it is about being replaced, traded or doubted, and then having the opportunity to show the people in your old building that they made a massive mistake.

The best revenge games on the 2026 NFL schedule

Some revenge games are fresh, with players who changed teams this offseason and immediately get a chance to make their old team regret it. Some have been sitting there for a year or two, waiting for the schedule to finally deliver the first true reunion. Then there are coaches waiting for their revenge opportunity after they were fired and now get a chance to dial up a gameplan that makes their old organization feel the pain.

So let’s get into the good stuff, with the revenge games that have real bite. 

Immediate player revenge

Here are the key players who changed uniforms this offseason and now get an immediate chance to make their old team regret it.

Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker III vs. Seahawks (Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 25 at 8:20 PM ET)

Kenneth Walker III was the Super Bowl MVP for Seattle, and a month later he was gone.

That alone makes his return one of the best revenge games on the schedule, but an interview with Pro Football Talk makes this even spicier. Walker said he knew during the 2025 season that he probably would not be back with the Seahawks in 2026. Things had not played out the way he expected, and by the time Seattle was making its Super Bowl run, he already had a pretty good idea that his future was somewhere else.

Now he comes back with the Chiefs, the team that gave him the contract Seattle would not.

Ravens DE Trey Hendrickson vs. Bengals (Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 25 at 1 PM ET in Baltimore and Week 17: Thursday, Dec. 31 at 8:15 PM ET in Cincinnati)

This is exactly the kind of revenge game the AFC North was built for.

Trey Hendrickson wanted a long-term answer from Cincinnati for a while, and the Bengals never really gave him one. The contract tension dated back to 2024, carried into 2025 and eventually got messy enough that Cincinnati listened to trade offers after talks hit an impasse. The two sides later worked out a one-year raise for 2025, but that was more of a temporary fix than a real long-term commitment.

Now the star pass-rusher ends up with the Ravens, of all places. Not just out of Cincinnati, but inside the division, with two shots a year at the team that would not commit to him. 

Bills WR DJ Moore vs. Bears (Week 15: Saturday, Dec. 19 at 8:20 PM ET)

Moore was the proven veteran and alpha in Chicago’s receiver room. Then the Bears kept adding talent around Caleb Williams, and suddenly Moore became the expensive piece they could justify moving.

There is also a fun Bills wrinkle here. The last time Buffalo traded for a star wide receiver from the NFC North, it was Stefon Diggs from Minnesota, and that worked out pretty well for Josh Allen and the Bills.

Now Moore gets the Bears with Buffalo, in an offense where he sets up as the top option in the aerial attack. If he has a big game against his former team, it turns into the kind of lesson teams hate learning in real time: Young receivers are exciting, but veterans who know how to win on Sundays can be difficult to replace.

Broncos WR Jaylen Waddle vs. Dolphins (Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 6 at 4:05 PM ET)

This one says a lot about how Miami viewed its own offense.

The Dolphins did not just trade Jaylen Waddle because they had a loaded receiving corps. They traded him after already releasing Tyreek Hill, which made Waddle the top pass-catcher left on the roster. Then they still chose the picks from the Broncos.

That sends a pretty clear message. Miami looked at its best remaining wideout and decided the draft capital mattered more than keeping a proven playmaker. Maybe that ends up being the right long-term call, but it gives Waddle an easy target when the Dolphins come to Denver.

Honorable mentions: Dolphins QB Malik Willis against the Packers, Rams DB Trent McDuffie against the Chiefs, Steelers WR Michael Pittman Jr. against the Colts, Jets QB Geno Smith against the Raiders

Long-awaited revenge

These are the ones that had to wait their turn and are now licking their chops. These players moved a while back, but the schedule gods are only now delivering their first chance to face the teams that let them go. 

Ravens RB Derrick Henry vs. Titans (Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 4 at 1 PM ET)

Derrick Henry was the Titans’ offensive identity for almost a decade. Then Tennessee hit the point every team eventually reaches with a great running back. He was 30, had carried a massive workload, and the Titans were starting over with a new coaching staff and a different plan. The message was pretty clear, with Tennessee betting Henry’s best football was behind him.

The problem is that Henry has spent the years since making that decision look ridiculous. He went to Baltimore, joined a Ravens offense built to run through people and kept producing monster seasons on the wrong side of 30. 

If Henry gets rolling against Tennessee, there is no subtle version of that revenge. The Titans know better than anyone what it looks like when he starts taking over a game and dragging defenders every carry. In 2026, they may have to stand on the other sideline and watch their former franchise icon do it to them.

Colts QB Daniel Jones vs. Giants (Week 12: Sunday, Nov. 29 at 1 PM ET)

Daniel Jones was supposed to be the Giants’ answer when they took him with the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Instead, New York nearly swallowed his career whole. He became a punchline for tabloids and fans, especially after the Giants chose to commit to him financially while Saquon Barkley eventually walked out the door.

Jones became the face of everything that was wrong with the Giants as an organization, and now he gets the chance to have the last laugh after revitalizing his career with the Colts.

If he beats the Giants, it will hit harder than a normal revenge game. It would force New York to sit with the possibility that Jones was not a failed franchise quarterback, but rather a franchise quarterback who got drafted into the wrong mess.

Commanders WR Deebo Samuel vs. 49ers (Week 6: Monday, Oct. 19 at 8:15 PM ET)

Deebo Samuel was one of the defining players of the 49ers’ recent run. His versatility and toughness were core parts of an offense that came up just short twice in the Super Bowl, and for years he gave San Francisco a positionless weapon that could be lined up anywhere on the field.

After six years in the Bay Area, the 49ers moved on from a player who helped give their offense its edge. The motion, screens, backfield touches and physicality after the catch all gave San Francisco’s offense a style that is hard to recreate without him.

Now he gets to come back with Washington and make San Francisco deal with the same problems he used to create for everyone else. The 49ers know his game better than anyone, but Deebo knows that offense and the pressure points of a defense that spent years practicing against him. This matchup could serve as a reminder that San Francisco can replace the touches, but replacing the player is a different challenge.

Coach revenge

Players usually get the headlines, but coaches can carry grudges too. These are the matchups where the revenge comes from the sideline, with fired coaches getting a chance to beat the organizations that decided they were the problem.

Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski vs. Browns (Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 13 at 1 PM ET)

Kevin Stefanski is not returning to Cleveland as some failed coach looking for validation. He won two Coach of the Year awards with the Browns, took the franchise to the playoffs twice and gave Cleveland some of its most stable football since the team returned in 1999.

Yet, Cleveland still fired a coach who had actually won there. Now Stefanski gets to bring Atlanta into Huntington Bank Field and put his new operation on the opposite side of the one that decided to move on from him.

Stefanski took the Browns to the playoffs in his first season as their head coach. Now the question is whether he can do the same with the Falcons, with a win over his old team serving as the cherry on top.

Titans HC Robert Saleh vs. Jets (Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 13 at 1 PM ET)

Robert Saleh’s Jets tenure went sour enough that he had to rebuild his head-coaching case from the coordinator chair. After being fired in New York, he went back to San Francisco as defensive coordinator, the place where his reputation had originally taken off.

Saleh got another head-coaching job in Tennessee, and one of the teams on the schedule is the franchise that tarnished his reputation. The Jets years were messy, with strong defensive stretches buried under quarterback problems and the usual New York chaos.

The Titans beating the Jets would not rewrite everything that happened there, but it would be a satisfying way to show that Saleh earned another shot at running his own team.

Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley vs. Packers (Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 20 at 1 PM ET)

Jeff Hafley does not fit the classic revenge-game mold. He was not fired by the Packers, but rather left as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator because Miami gave him a head-coaching offer.

Still, there is enough here to make the matchup interesting. Hafley spent two years inside that building, and his final game with the Packers was ugly. Green Bay blew a 21-3 halftime lead in a Wild Card loss to the Bears, with the defense giving up 25 points in the fourth quarter.

Beating the Packers in Green Bay would not be some bitter payback tour. But for a coach who left to take on a bigger challenge, it would be a pretty satisfying way to show he made the right call going to the Dolphins.