Here are the Patriots’ opponents for the 2021 NFL season
Tom Brady's Buccaneers headline the Patriots' opponents for next season.
The Patriots’ opponents for the 2021 NFL season are set, for the most part.
New England’s 17-game schedule will be headlined by Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough when the Patriots take on the Buccaneers. The Patriots face the Buccaneers in 2021 as the entire AFC East faces each team in the NFC South in 2021. The Saints will also come to Foxborough as the Patriots will travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons and Carolina to take on the Panthers.
In addition to facing the entire NFC South, all four AFC East teams will take on the four teams in the AFC South. Of those teams, the Patriots will host the Jaguars and Titans and will have road games at the Colts and Texans.
Because the Patriots finished in third place in the AFC East in 2020, they’ll face the teams that finished third in the AFC North and AFC West. They’ll host the Browns, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2002 this season, and play the Chargers in Los Angeles for a second straight season.
The 2021 season marks the first year that the NFL will have a 17-game regular-season schedule. For the 17th game, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported last week on the procedure to determine the added opponent for next season. AFC East teams will face the team in the NFC East that finished in the same place in their division. If that is the case, the Patriots will play the Cowboys, who finished third in the NFC East in 2020. The location for the game has yet to be determined.
Finally, the Patriots will face all three of their AFC East rivals (Bills, Dolphins, Jets) once at home and once on the road.
In total, the Patriots will take on six teams that made the playoffs in 2020 in their 2021 slate.
The full NFL schedule for the upcoming season is usually released in April.
Here are all of the Patriots’ opponents for the 2021 season:
Home
Bills
Dolphins
Jets
Jaguars
Titans
Browns
Buccaneers
Saints
Away
Bills
Dolphins
Jets
Colts
Texans
Chargers
Falcons
Panthers
TBD
Cowboys
Get Boston.com's browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com