NFL continues to navigate scheduling puzzle with every game up for bid and more broadcast windows
NBC Sports President Rick Cordella put it best when summarizing what the NFL's scheduling department goes through each year.
'I have five kids at home and you never satisfy them all. Just try and do your best, so I think it's a little bit of that,' Cordella said Wednesday afternoon after he had a chance to look at the 'Sunday Night Football' slate for the upcoming season. 'They have really, really hard jobs. I have no doubt. We're all campaigning. We're all leveraging. We all pay a lot of money for these rights and we all want the same thing.'
One would think the job has gotten somewhat easier the past couple years as the league has come up with more broadcast windows, including making Christmas Day a permanent fixture.
The trade off though is that this is the third year under the league's broadcast deals that all of the games are up for bid for every network.
CBS remains the primary home of the AFC, with the NFC on Fox, but if there is a great NFC matchup during a week when CBS has the doubleheader, that game will end up on CBS. That is the case in Week 1 with Minnesota visiting Green Bay in the 4:25 p.m. EDT spot.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, said this year's rotation of the NFC North facing the AFC North and NFC East created a lot of favorable matchups to divide among all the network's broadcast partners.
'We love every schedule in May. Hopefully we love it in December too,' said Schroeder, who is in his second year leading the league's scheduling team. 'We have a lot of great matchups, and the flexibility of those new TV deals that every game could go into any widow, I think that's the key and to marry that with a team that is relentless in their effort, I think led to a fun and really great schedule.'
Down to the wire again
Even though the league announced the release date during the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24, the schedule wasn't totally finalized until Tuesday.
Because some of the games started to be announced on Monday during network upfront presentations to advertisers, those matchups were locked in on Sunday night.
The biggest final-minute decision with the early announced games came with the Fox Week 16 Saturday doubleheader on Dec. 20. The league knew it wanted Packers vs. Bears and Eagles vs. Commanders, but didn't finalize the home teams until Sunday night.
Bills vs. Chiefs remains on CBS
If ever there was a year where the league could opt to move the Buffalo-Kansas City game from CBS to prime time, this was the one.
However, the Week 9 matchup will again be on CBS and is the only 4:25 p.m. game on Nov. 2. Going into this season, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have faced each other nine times, including the playoffs. The first matchup in 2020 was on Fox with the rest being on CBS.
'To be documenting the story of these franchises and star quarterbacks, we're thrilled to keep telling it,' CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson said.
CBS also got what could be the most-watched game during the regular season with Kansas City visiting Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The most-watched Thanksgiving game was in 2022 when the New York Giants win over Dallas averaged 42.06 million on Fox.
The Chiefs and Bills are both slated to have nine games on CBS.
Hello again
It is rare that a Super Bowl rematch airs on the network that carried the game, but Fox gets Kansas City visiting Philadelphia on Week 2 in the 4:25 p.m. EDT window.
Getting the rematch satisfied a couple of requests that Fox made to the league. The network wants more variety in its late afternoon window, and is also getting more quality matchups when the top AFC teams play on their network.
'We didn't want to be so reliant on the Dallas Cowboys. I think we hear complaints sometimes that fans feel like it gets a little bit monotonous that our 4:25 window is dominated by one team,' said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics. 'We're certainly still going to have our share of Dallas games, but we're going to have some Philly in there too. We're also going to have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington. I think it is pretty different than what you're used to seeing on Fox, and I think it's actually going to be a little bit better.'
Under the lights
NBC not only has the Kickoff game between Dallas and Philadelphia on Sept. 4, it has the matchup between the last two NFL MVPs when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Allen and Buffalo on Sept. 7 on 'Sunday Night Football'.
ABC will have 13 'Monday Night Football' games — 11 simulcasts with ESPN and two exclusive games. There will also be two MNF doubleheaders on Sept. 15 and Oct. 20. The Week 7 doubleheader will have the late game between Houston and Seattle streamed on ESPN+.
'Thursday Night Football on Prime Video' features all 14 playoff teams from last year as well as 10 divisional matchups. Prime Video concludes its regular-season slate with Denver at Kansas City on Christmas night.
No late surprises
Derek Carr's retirement did not have any impact on New Orleans' schedule. The Saints were already in a rebuilding mode under new coach Kellen Moore and join Cleveland and Tennessee as the only teams not slated to make a prime time appearance.
Pittsburgh is already a national brand, so the waiting game on if Aaron Rodgers suits up in black and yellow or who will be Mike Tomlin's quarterback also didn't have much of a factor. The Steelers — along with AFC North rivals Baltimore and Cincinnati — have four prime time games.
However, in case Rodgers decides to sign with Pittsburgh, his Week 1 opponent will be at the New York Jets and former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields.
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