Chargers 2025 schedule: Team will travel most miles in the NFL this season
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert reacts during a game against the Kansas City Chiefs in September. The Chargers will open the season against their AFC West rivals in Brazil. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
As Jim Harbaugh said last year in preparation for an extended road trip: Bring the board games and snacks.
This will be a long ride.
The Chargers will cover the most air miles of any NFL team in 2025, traveling more than 37,000 miles , according to Bookies.com. The itinerary starts with a trip to Sao Paulo to face AFC West rival Kansas City on Sept. 5 in the NFL's second regular-season game played in South America.
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The season opener is the first of three consecutive divisional games to kick off the Chargers' second year under Harbaugh. The AFC West added former Seahawks and USC coach Pete Carroll in Las Vegas, where the Chargers will play at 7 p.m. PDT on Sept. 15 in a 'Monday Night Football' showcase. It's one of five prime time games for the Chargers.
Read more: 'ChiefsAholic' superfan gets state prison sentence tacked onto federal term for bank robberies
Trying to make consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since 2009, the Chargers first have to confront ghosts of playoffs past. They have rematches against their last two playoff opponents as Houston visits SoFi Stadium in Week 17 and the Chargers go to Jacksonville on Nov. 16. The memory of a blown 27-point lead in the 2022 wild card game likely won't fully fade until the team gets over the postseason hump under Harbaugh and quarterback Justin Herbert.
Here's a game-by-game look at the regular-season schedule (all times Pacific).
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Sept. 5, KANSAS CITY in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 5 p.m. (YouTube): Perhaps another change of scenery can help break the Chargers' 11-game home losing streak in this series. Kansas City's road dominance spans three cities and four stadiums with wins in San Diego, StubHub Center, Mexico City's Estadio Azteca and SoFi Stadium since the Chargers' last home win in the series in 2013.
Sept. 15, at Las Vegas, 7 p.m. (ESPN): As if this division rivalry needed more fuel. More than a decade after they battled in the NFC West and the Pac-12, Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll meet again on 'Monday Night Football.'
Sept. 21, DENVER, 1:05 p.m. (CBS): The Chargers' home win over the Broncos last season not only set up a late-season surge, but it achieved a life-long goal for Harbaugh. He got to witness Cameron Dicker hit the longest fair catch free kick in NFL history.
Sept. 28, at New York Giants, 10 a.m. (CBS): The Chargers get their first look at Malik Nabers, but the Giants star second-year receiver is already a familiar face for Chargers second-round pick Tre' Harris. Harris, a receiver out of Mississippi, was Nabers' high school quarterback in Lafayette, La.
New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers runs with the ball against the Indianapolis Colts in December.
(Corey Sipkin / Associated Press)
Oct. 5, WASHINGTON, 1:25 p.m. (Fox): San Bernardino native Jayden Daniels will play his first NFL game in L.A. after winning the NFL offensive rookie of the year and leading the Commanders to their first appearance in the NFC championship game since 1991.
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Oct. 12, at Miami, 10 a.m. (CBS): The Dolphins have not won a playoff game since 2000, the longest active postseason victory drought in the NFL.
Oct. 19, INDIANAPOLIS, 1:05 p.m. (CBS): The Colts have never played at SoFi Stadium and have the longest playoff drought of any of the Chargers' 2025 opponents, not making the postseason since 2020.
Oct. 23, MINNESOTA, 5:15 p.m. (Prime Video): The Vikings' presumptive starter J.J. McCarthy will face off against his former coach. McCarthy, who led Michigan to a national title under Harbaugh in 2023, missed his rookie season because of a knee injury.
Nov. 2, at Tennessee, 10 a.m. (CBS): No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward will try to elevate the team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2021. The Chargers haven't won a road game at Tennessee since 2009, losing three times by a combined margin of nine points.
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Nov. 9, PITTSBURGH, 5:20 p.m. (NBC): Without a playoff win since 2016, the Steelers are still waiting for a decision from 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers to determine who will throw passes to key offseason acquisition D.K. Metcalf.
Read more: Chargers address several needs in draft, but one area of potential concern remains
Nov. 16, at Jacksonville, 10 a.m. (CBS): In their infamous wild card collapse in Jacksonville, the Chargers became the first NFL team to lose a playoff game with a turnover differential of plus-five or better.
Nov. 23, off week
Nov. 30, LAS VEGAS, 1:25 p.m. (CBS): With Carroll and former Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith in Las Vegas, the AFC West could again be one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL after three teams made it to the playoffs last year.
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Dec. 8, Philadelphia, 5:15 p.m. (ABC/ESPN): The Chargers upgraded the size on their interior defensive line to prepare for matchups like this one. The Super Bowl champions' dominance at the line of scrimmage is the standard for the league.
Dec. 14, at Kansas City, 10 a.m. (CBS): The Chargers have lost seven consecutive games to their AFC West rivals with six coming by seven points or fewer including last year's nail-biter at Arrowhead Stadium that ended with the Chiefs hitting a game-winning field goal off the upright.
Dec. 21, at Dallas, 10 a.m. (Fox): After a contract extension that paid an NFL-record $60 million a year, Dak Prescott had a career-low 86.0 passer rating while throwing 11 touchdowns with eight passes intercepted before missing 10 games because of a hamstring injury.
Read more: Jim Harbaugh taking a new approach to evaluating Chargers' rookie talent
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Week 17, HOUSTON, TBD: Herbert can redeem himself against the defense that grabbed four interceptions in the Chargers' 2024 playoff flop. Texans quarterback and Rancho Cucamonga native C.J. Stroud returns to his Southern California roots.
Week 18, at Denver, TBD: The Chargers secured their first win in Denver since 2018 last season.
Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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