Sunday Night Football Flex Scheduling Watch: Week 14

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Since it started in its current format as the NFL’s main primetime package in 2006, the defining feature of NBC’s Sunday Night Football has been the use of flexible scheduling to ensure the best matchups and showcase the best teams as the season goes along. Well, that’s the theory, anyway; the reality has not always lived up to the initial hype and has at times seemed downright mystifying. Regardless, I’m here to help you figure out what you can and can’t expect to see on Sunday nights on NBC.

A full explanation of all the factors that go into flexible scheduling decisions can be found on my NFL Flexible Scheduling Primer, but here’s the Cliffs Notes version with all the important points you need to know:

  • The season can be broken down into three different periods (four if you count the first four weeks where flexible scheduling does not apply at all) for flexible scheduling purposes, each with similar yet different rules governing them: the early flex period, from weeks 5 to 10; the main flex period, from weeks 11 to 17; and week 18. In years where Christmas forces either the Sunday afternoon slate or the Sunday night game to Saturday in Week 16, flex scheduling does not apply that week, and the main flex period begins week 10.
  • In all cases, only games scheduled for Sunday may be moved to Sunday night. Thursday and Monday night games are not affected by Sunday night flexible scheduling (discounting the “flexible scheduling” applied to Saturdays in December in recent years – see below).
  • During the early and main flex periods, one game is “tentatively” scheduled for Sunday night and listed with the Sunday night start time of 8:20 PM ET. This game will usually remain at that start time and air on NBC, but may be flexed out for another game and moved to 1, 4:05, or 4:25 PM ET on Fox or CBS, no less than 12 days in advance of the game.
  • No more than two games can be flexed to Sunday night over the course of the early flex period. If the NFL wishes to flex out a game in the early flex period twelve days in advance, CBS and Fox may elect to protect one game each from being moved to Sunday night. This is generally an emergency valve in situations where the value of the tentative game has plummeted since the schedule was announced, namely in cases of injury to a key star player.
  • CBS and Fox may also each protect games, historically in five out of six weeks of the main flex period (whether or not they received an additional protection with the expansion of the main flex period an additional week is unknown), but all of those protections must be submitted after week 5, week 4 in years where the main flex period begins week 10 (so it is always six weeks before the start of the main flex period).
  • No team may appear more than six times across the league’s three primetime packages on NBC, ESPN, and Fox/NFL Network, and only three teams are allowed to appear that often, with everyone else getting five. In addition, no team may appear more than four times on NBC. All teams’ number of appearances heading into this season may be seen here.
  • According to the league’s official page, teams are notified when “they are no longer under consideration or eligible for a move to Sunday night.” However, they rarely make this known to the fans, and the list of each network’s protections has never officially been made public. It used to leak fairly regularly, but has not leaked since 2014.
  • In all cases, the NFL is the ultimate arbiter of the schedule and consults with CBS, Fox, and NBC before moving any games to prime time. If the NFL does elect to flex out the Sunday night game, the network whose game is flexed in may receive the former tentative game, regardless of which network would “normally” air it under the “CBS=AFC, Fox=NFC” rules, keeping each network’s total number of games constant. At the same time, the NFL may also move games between 1 PM ET and 4:05/4:25 PM ET. However, this feature focuses primarily if not entirely on Sunday night flexible scheduling.
  • In Week 18, the entire schedule is set on only six days notice, ensuring that NBC gets a game with playoff implications, generally a game where the winner is the division champion. More rarely, NBC may also show an intra-division game for a wild card spot, or a game where only one team wins the division with a win but doesn’t win the division with a loss, but such situations are rare and 2018 and 2020, respectively, were the first times it showed such games. If no game is guaranteed to have maximum playoff implications before Sunday night in this fashion, the league has been known not to schedule a Sunday night game at all. To ensure maximum flexibility, no protections or appearance limits apply to Week 17. The NFL also arranges the rest of the schedule such that no team playing at 4:25 PM ET (there are no 4:05 games Week 17) could have their playoff fate decided by the outcome of the 1 PM ET games, which usually means most if not all of the games with playoff implications outside Sunday night are played at 4:25 PM ET. However, beginning this season, the NFL will also move two games to Saturday to be simulcast on ESPN and ABC.

Here are the current tentatively-scheduled games and my predictions:

Week 11 (November 21):

  • Selected game: Pittsburgh @ LA Chargers.

Week 12 (November 28):

  • Selected game: Cleveland @ Baltimore.

Week 13 (December 5):

  • Selected game: Denver @ Kansas City.

Week 14 (December 12):

  • Selected game: Chicago @ Green Bay.

Week 15 (December 19):

  • Selected game: New Orleans @ Tampa Bay.

Week 16 (December 26):

  • Selected game: Washington @ Dallas (presumably).

Week 17 (January 2):

  • Tentative game: Minnesota @ Green Bay
  • Prospects:: 6-7 v. 10-3. The Vikings aren’t really bad enough to normally warrant flexing the game out, out of the wild card only on tiebreakers and firmly in second in the division, but the gap between them and the Packers is wide enough that it might still be concerningly lopsided. That gap also means a Packer win or Viking loss either of the next two weeks locks up the division for the Packers before this game is played, but the Packers are still in a three-way fight for the first round bye. It wouldn’t normally be a cause for concern until you look at the alternatives.
  • Likely protections: Chiefs-Bengals or Broncos-Chargers (CBS) and Rams-Ravens or Cardinals-Cowboys (FOX).
  • Other possible games: Fox’s potentially protected games involve only teams at 8-5 or better and pit teams a game apart, and CBS’s games aren’t chopped liver either, though Chiefs-Bengals is probably off-limits with the Chiefs being flexed in earlier this year maxing them out on primetime appearances. Dolphins-Titans, Raiders-Colts, and Falcons-Bills are getting lost in the shuffle, and Eagles-Presidents is stuck behind even those games.
  • Analysis: If Vikings-Packers isn’t flexed out, Rams-Ravens at 9-4 v. 8-5 would normally be a lock to remain the featured game in the late doubleheader window, but Fox has to be, at the very least, very tempted to showcase a game featuring the Cowboys in a battle of division leaders when one game separates all four NFC division leaders. And that’s the factor that might get this game flexed out: that both games are too good for one of them to be stuck in the early window. Being the featured game in the early window isn’t as bad for a game’s distribution as the singleheader (as home markets for teams in early singleheader games still get an early doubleheader game, but the reverse usually isn’t the case), and the early window on either network isn’t anywhere near as disastrous as the late singleheader window, where the league has bent over backwards to try and keep big games from ending up in the past, so you wouldn’t expect the league to go the extra mile for these games. A Vikings loss on Monday night at Soldier Field to a Bears team that’s lost seven of eight, with the win coming against the then-winless Lions in a Thanksgiving game the Bears nearly let slip, with the Lions finishing the job against the Vikings the following week, though? At that point you might start to wonder whether this game is worth keeping given the alternatives. Packers-Vikings isn’t the iconic rivalry Packers-Bears is, the Vikings would only be a game ahead of the Bears (and with the middle two teams in the NFC East playing each other, a loss would put the Vikings a full game back of the wild card), and taking that result with the teams’ respective results at Ford Field would leave you with the impression the Bears might be the better team, even with the win coming at home for them.

    As for what might replace it, I think the game Fox allow(ed) NBC to have is the only real choice; Broncos-Chargers could have the same pair of records as Rams-Ravens but the latter has more star power. What may throw a wrench into things is, if Fox prefers (or preferred) Cardinals-Cowboys, the league may want to make things as logistically easy as possible and allow even a 6-8 Vikings team against the Packers to keep their spot, as of the options available if Fox keeps both games, having both games in the late window and letting Eagles-Presidents anchor the early window might be the least bad option in terms of distribution… but unless the league wants to pull another six-day hold out of their hat, there’d be a chance that either NFC East team could eliminate the Vikings from the playoffs entirely by the time the game is played, especially if it’s the rematch in the aforementioned Eagles-Presidents game that could finish the job. (And if it’s Washington, the league would likely be loath to use a six-day hold that’s likely to depend on the result of the Sunday night game, especially if no other 6-7 team joins them.)

  • Final prediction: Los Angeles Rams @ Baltimore Ravens (if the Vikings lose on Monday night and Fox protected Cardinals-Cowboys), Arizona Cardinals @ Dallas Cowboys (if the Vikings lose on Monday night and Fox didn’t protect it or is willing/coerced into giving it up), Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers (no change) (if the Vikings win on Monday night). (If the league does pull a six-day hold out of their hat I’ll assume Rams-Ravens is the game under consideration unless I see reports otherwise.)

Week 18 (January 9):

  • Tentative game: None (NBC will show game with guaranteed playoff implications).
  • Games to watch: Pretty much every NFC game except Packers-Lions and Panthers-Bucs; even Bears-Vikings and Football Team-Giants could come into play if the team in playoff contention would lose a tiebreaker to the Saints-Falcons winner. (Panthers-Bucs is likely out of the running for SNF, even if the Panthers make a late-season playoff push, as the first-round bye is likely to be the only thing the Bucs have to play for and there’s no real way for them to have a guaranteed bye-with-win, no-bye-with-loss game without creating a more enticing option, but both it and Packers-Lions could be Saturday night options depending on the tiebreaker situation.) On the AFC side, the field seems to be narrowing to Colts-Jaguars, Steelers-Ravens, Jets-Bills, Bengals-Browns, and Chargers-Raiders. The Colts, like the Bills (and to a lesser extent the Chargers), could find themselves in a situation where they’d be in with a win but bumped out in favor of the Bengals-Browns winner with a loss; on the other hand, the Titans and Patriots are in similar situations as the Bucs and Packers, and as the Raiders fade down the stretch the West might have the wrong pair of games to produce a potential Sunday night game, unless the Broncos go on enough of a tear and the Chiefs slip enough to make the game between them a division title game (if the Chiefs win and Broncos lose this week the Broncos would be eliminated from the division). Next week’s post could come out very late as I try to sort through the permutations surrounding 11 games before I even get to picking Saturday games.

74 thoughts on “Sunday Night Football Flex Scheduling Watch: Week 14”

  1. Now Remember packers Lions Can’t Be Flexed Because ESPN Has Already Aired The First Meeting on Monday Night Football And Because The Lions Were Out Of The Playoff Picture That can not be flexed to NBC. So NBC Will Have To Find Another Game.

  2. Hi, Andrew. You’re right that Packers vs. Lions game at Ford field on week 18 can’t be flexed to NBC. If the Minnesota Vikings beat Chicago Bears at Chicago next Monday night, I see the Packers vs. Vikings game at Lambeau Field staying on Sunday Night Football NBC. I would be surprised if there’s no Sunday Night Football NBC on week 18 regular season finale this season.

  3. Here’s my take on things so far. (From previous thread)

    Week 16

    # 1 – Ravens(8-5) @ Bengals(7-6) <—huge game after Bengals smacked Ravens earlier this season in Baltimore & I'd go with this
    # 2 – Bills(7-6) @ Patriots(9-4) <—might be important just for the Bills' survival
    # 3 – Steelers(6-6-1) @ Chiefs(9-4) <—can't be flexed in as KC is out of SNF until Week 18 and I think that the NFL flexed Kansas City in too early with that game this past Sunday vs. Denver, but perhaps the Chiefs are protected the rest of the way ?

    Tentative – Redskins(6-7) @ Cowboys(9-4) – looks good to stay, but with Cowboys beating them this past Sunday, there is some chance of a flex

    Week 17

    # 1 – Cardinals(10-3) @ Cowboys(9-4) <—probably protected by FOX
    # 2 – Rams(9-4) @ Ravens (8-5) <— pretty big matchup and it's NFC vs. AFC and has huge implications in each Conference
    # 3 – Broncos(7-6) @ Chargers(8-5) <—Broncos have been a hard matchup for Herbert in his short career and suddenly this might become a big game
    # 4 – Chiefs(9-4) @ Bengals(7-6) <—might have been a fun matchup for SNF and could be a blowout too, but Chiefs are maxed out on SNF until Week 18

    Tentative – Vikings(6-7) @ Packers(10-3) – if Vikings don't just fall of the earth, this will stay. This has to be decided by the end of Week 15. That being said, there are some other compelling matchups in Week 17.

    Week 18 (sounds so weird to say that)

    2 games will be moved from their preliminary Sunday slot to Sat. 01/08/22 and they’ll both be aired on ESPN/ABC. This is an interesting move to me. These 2 games and the SNF game will both be announced with the rest of the Week 18 schedule, at the conclusion of the Week 17 schedule (at the latest).

    Tentative – none of course

    Current Games and Records of each team

    # 1 – Bengals(7-6) @ Browns(7-6) <—this could be a win and in and lose and out for a final playoff spot, but the odds are that there will be other teams at the same record as them
    # 2 – 49ers(7-6) @ Rams(9-4) <—potentially pivotal NFC West tilt
    # 3 – Chiefs(9-4) @ Broncos(7-6) <—likely not as already flexed in, but if Broncos can keep winning……hmm
    # 4 – Steelers(6-6-1) @ Ravens(8-5) <—this should fall away, as I see the Steelers falling away, However they are only 1 1/2 behind the Ravens for 1st in AFC North, so who knows

    I currently have 4 games looking decent for the 3 Nationally televised games in Week 18 and then a bunch of who knows. We’ll see how that progresses. I'd hate to be the schedule maker for this Week 18. I think the NFL did themselves a bit of a disservice by adding the 2 Saturday games to the schedule, but I do know why they did.

    Any thoughts anyone?

    Go Pack Go this week in Baltimore 🙂

  5. As said in the other post:

    Week 17: Whichever of Cardinals-Cowboys or Rams-Ravens was NOT protected by FOX. Dallas may still be playing to escape the 4 seed at that point and they are only one back of the other three.

    Week 18: Patriots-Dolphins looks like a LOCK as of now for 8:15 Saturday. Otherwise, still too early.

  6. The Ravens could easily match the Viking’s loss total coming into Week 17 given their next two opponents are the Packers and the Bengals and adding a hobbled Lamar to mix. I don’t see a Rams Vs Ravens match up drawing a bigger rating than a Vikings Vs Packers game to beat out the tentative bias. If the Vikings win on Monday night against the Bears, the league will stay with the Vikings vs Packers UNLESS NBC gets a chance to showcase their Metallic Silver Cow two weeks in a row but they may want Cowboys-Eagles for the finale if things play out with meaning for that game. Would NBC showcase the Boys 3 weeks in a row?? Talk about an NBC Sports Executive’s DREAM! 😛

  7. Is there any chance of movement for an early game into an afternoon slot in wk 16, or would that have had to have been announced by now? I’d love to watch Rams-Vikes in one afternoon window and Pats-Bills in another…. Thanks

  8. Hello Cory I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan and I read everything you said. I highly doubt NBC will flex Vikings and Packers considering the fact Al Michael’s and Cris Collinsworth will miss a chance to clinge to Aaron Rodgers balls about how much his ass isn’t a liar. I don’t think the Eagles will make a run considering they still have to play Wft twice. However if NBC does flex my Cowboys against the Eagles I don’t mind us sweeping them in a national audience.

  9. Hello Dean,

    Unfortunately nothing at all changed for the schedule in Week 16. What they announced at the schedule release in May, is exactly how it stayed.

  10. That’s too bad, I don’t know how excited I am to watch Ben Roethlisbergers corpse take on the KC defense and follow it up with the Football Team in Primetime, lol… oh well, it’s still football I guess

  12. LOL Dean. I hear you about Ben. He’s pretty much what you described him anymore. 🙂

    And thank you A1. Based on earlier this season, like 2 or 3 weeks ago, this makes me feel that there will be no further changes to the Week 17 schedule.

  13. https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/NFL-announces-schedule-updates-for-Week-17.aspx

    So looking like no SNF flex. Vikings-Packers is a more marquee match-up, than Rams-Ravens. And Fox obviously protected Cardinals-Cowboys. Chiefs-Bengals was off limits, since they already flexed the Chiefs already.

    So now we can focus on week 18 flexing. Going to be very interesting with the Saturday doubleheader. I wonder if the NFL will announce the while schedule all at once, or will they announce the Saturday games first, then release the Sunday slate. We shall see.

  14. A1:

    That suggests FOX protected Cardinals-Cowboys, making Rams-Ravens possible to be moved to SNF, however, it’s possible NBC might have to go to a six-day flex Window not only because of games’ meanings being different (including by the time Rams-Ravens kicking off the Rams being locked into the 5 seed if it were at 8:20), but with COVID ravaging some teams it may be a situation where the NFL may need to move a game to SNF on very short notice, including possibly Browns-Packers, currently slated to be the 4:30 game on Christmas Day on FOX and NFL Network (as some think Raiders-Browns this week could wind up being moved to as late as Tuesday due to COVID on the Browns) moved to SNF. It’s quite possible that scenario happens where Browns-Packers became SNF with the scheduled SNF game, Football Team-Cowboys moved to a 5:00 or 6:00 PM ET Monday start on FOX and NFL Network (if 6:00 the scheduled MNF game, MIA-NO pushed back to 9:30) to make up for losing their scheduled Christmas Day game (if Browns-Packers has to be moved). That would only be done because of a COVID emergency and no other reason.

  15. John:

    Did not see your post when I did mine. It’s obvious FOX protected Cardinals-Cowboys since that was moved to 4:25 PM ET where Rams-Ravens had been. I could still see Rams-Ravens be flexed to SNF (but on a six-day window) since the Ravens are still playing for the AFC North and the Rams could be playing for the NFC West with a lot depending on the next two weeks). It’s also possible the NFL had to go to a 19-day window this season because given staff shortages in a lot of cities as a lot of law enforcement quit or are on leave due to vaccine mandates (many refusing to get vaccinated), it may be local authorities needed more than 12 days to move a game to SNF, especially if it means they are shorthanded Monday morning because of people having to work very late on Sunday night as a result of SNF. Also, Week 17 happens to be New Year’s weekend and that Monday is the first business day of the new year and they need full staffs for Monday morning. It may be local authorities told the NFL due to anticipated staff shortages (especially with New Year’s Eve being two nights earlier) they did not have enough personnel for a game to be moved to Sunday night on those grounds. Especially with COVID also knocking out a lot of personnel from work, it may make it very difficult for the NFL to flex ANY game to Sunday night the rest of the way (including Week 18, where there could be no Sunday Night game at all and the NFL even having to scrap the Saturday doubleheader on ESPN that week due to lack of available perssonel to handle a switch from Sunday afternoon to Saturday or Sunday night).

  16. Perhaps in light of the Browns situation, the NFL should consider some emergency schedule changes:

    Week 15: Raiders-Browns on NFL Network goes from 4:30 Saturday to 5:00 PM Monday with Vikings-Bears possibly pushed back to 8:45 PM ET to accommodate that. No replacement game in the 4:30 Saturday slot.

    Week 16: Giants-Eagles replaces Browns-Packers as the 4:30 Saturday game on FOX and NFL Network OR is at 8:15 on NFL Network only with Colts-Cardinals moved up from 8:15 to 4:30 on FOX and NFL Network.

    Browns-Packers is moved to Sunday Night Football and either played at the same time as Football Team-Cowboys (possibly with the games in an NBC/USA Network split where Browns-Packers airs on USA Network except in Cleveland and Green Bay while Football Team-Cowboys airs as scheduled everywhere else) OR Football Team-Cowboys or Browns-Packers is moved to Monday at 5:00 or 6:00 PM and airs on FOX and NFL Network at that time (with Dolphins Saints if that happened moved to 8:45 or 9:35 depending on the start time of any moved game).

    These would all be emergency flexes and solely done because of that.

  17. I don’t believe that the NFL plans on moving or rescheduling any games this season. Also I now realized that the Cowboys are maxed out on SNF until Week 18 due to them having already had 6 National Games.

  18. Jeff:

    It’s now being reported several games, including Raiders-Browns are going to be postponed, with Raiders-Browns possibly postponed to Tuesday. This may force the NFL’s hand on this and I could see a considerably rearraigned schedule for Week 16 depending on which gets get postponed in Week 15.

  20. One thing I could see happening in Week 16 is FOX and CBS both getting a 3:05 or 4:05 PM ET window on Monday 12/27 with games involving teams that had to play on Tuesday (if as now is expected to be the case Raiders-Browns and Football Team-Eagles) both get postponed to Tuesday this week, with possibly two games on each network in such a slot on Monday, OR what happens is since Browns-Packers is supposed to be the Christmas Day FOX/NFL Network game, Browns-Packers becomes a 1:00 PM ET game Monday on FOX/NFLN and CBS gets the other three games involving affected teams at 4:25 and another game is moved to the scheduled FOX/NFLN window on Saturday to replace Browns-Packers.

  21. We now officially have changes to the schedule:

    Raiders-Browns is now Monday 12/19 at 5:00 PM on most likely.
    Vikings-Bears remains as scheduled

    Rams-Seahawks AND Football Team-Eagles BOTH expected to be played Tuesday, I suspect it could be done this way:

    WFT-Eagles 6:00 PM on FOX
    Rams-Seahawks 9:30 PM ET on CBS

  22. As of now, Rams-Seahwks and WFT-Eagles are both expected to be on FOX at 7:00 PM ET on Tuesday, though it is conceivable Rams-Seahawks could be at 7:00 PM PT (10:00 ET) on FOX this week.

    In light of the moves to Tuesday THIS week, here is how I would adjust week 16, with ALL moves done for competitive balance reasons:

    C​​​​​​​olts-Cardinals (Christmas Night at 8:15 PM ET on NFL Network) is moved to 4:30 PM ET on FOX/NFLN

    Ravens-Bengals (Sunday 12/26 at 1:00 PM on CBS) becomes Saturday 12/25 at 8:15 PM ET on NFLN and CBS

    Browns-Packers (Christmas Day at 4:30 PM ET on FOX/NFL Network) would be moved to Monday 12/27 at 1:00 PM on FOX/NFLN (many people have Monday off)

    Giants-Eagles (Sunday 12/26 at 1:00 PM on FOX), Broncos-Raiders (Sunday 12/26 at 4:25 PM on CBS), Bears-Seahawks (Sunday 12/26 4:05 PM on FOX) all become 4:25 PM ET games Monday 12/27 on CBS

    Also possibly there would be a flip of the Sunday and Monday night games, with Dolphins-Saints (scheduled Monday Night Game on ESPN) becoming Sunday Night Football and Football Team-Cowboys (scheduled Sunday Night Game) becoming Monday Night Football, all in the name of competitive balance.

    ALL of these would be emergency schedule changes that would not count against the normal national TV limits.

  23. With more time to think about Week 15, I actually would have put BOTH games on FS1 with WFT-PHI at 6:30 (also on FOX in the east) and LAR-SEA at 9:55 PM ET (also on FOX in the west).

    That actually would have made sense and been a perfect time to experiment with putting NFL games on FS1, as FS1 is likely to get more exposure anyway if YouTube TV viewers lose ESPN after tonight as many expect.

  24. I was definitely wrong about schedule changes. I figured due to the NFL’s statement before the season, that it wasn’t likely. We’ll see how things shake out from here.

    Kudos Walt.

  25. The NFL regionalized the Tuesday games to protect Sunday Ticket. Last year, DirectTV was scrambling to meet contractual minimums, as we saw a lot of the displaced games become national. Maybe the next Sunday Ticket contract will be structured differently to allow for more wiggle-room (ESPN+ is the favorite to land said contract).

  26. John:

    I’m sure A T & T (DirecTV’s parent) demanded the regionalization of the games in question (not an issue with Raiders-Browns since that was scheduled as an NFL Network game) to minimalize its impact. Still think the NFL should have simply compensated DirecTV for loss of games on Sunday Ticket if they fell below the minimum and instead made Tuesday a doubleheader on FS1 with one game also airing on FOX with that determined by time zone.

    If Disney lands Sunday Ticket for ESPN+, it likely also would make it easier for flexing games between Monday Night Football and Sunday.

    This, BTW, is also why for Week 16 I adjust the schedule where SNF and MNF are flipped (MIA-NO to SNF, WFT-DAL to MNF) while Browns-Packers is by itself in a 1:00 PM MONDAY window on FOX and NFL Network (next week is the only week the NFL can get away with a 1:00 PM Monday game as many take the entire week off) and then games involving teams that had games moved this week to Monday or Tuesday are put together in a 4:25 PM ET window on CBS Monday that also gives DirecTV an extra Sunday Ticket window and MNF at its normal time (or such can be split between FOX and CBS with CBS at 4:05 and FOX at 4:25 as if it were Sunday). These would ALL be emergency flexes in the name of competitive balance.

  27. Can someone answer my question that I am about to say. Please reply. Do you think the Bengals Ravens game will get flexed to Christmas because of the browns packers? Can it get flexed? Also can you give me your updated predictions for Christmas day and all of the other weeks? What will happen on Thursday night due to the Cards and cowboys game getting flexed to 4:25? Will you give me the possible scenarios for the Bengals?

  28. Luke:

    While not likely, I could see the NFL do a slew of changes for Week 16 I previously noted that as I would do it would potentially have includes Bengals-Ravens moved to Christmas Night at 8:15 and that becoming an NFLN/CBS telecast (while Colts-Cardinals moves to 4:30 and becomes a FOX/NFLN broadcast and Browns-Packers moves to Monday at 1:00 PM. also a FOX/NFLN broadcast). The other changes would have includes switching the Sunday and Monday night games (MIA-NO to SNF, WFT-DAL to MNF) along with all other teams who had games moved to Monday or Tuesday in Week 15 playing in a “late” Monday afternoon window in Week 16 at 4:05 PM ET on CBS or 4:25 PM ET on FOX, split between the networks (Browns-Packers in this scenario would be by itself on Monday at 1:00 because that is a FOX/NFLN game and was such to begin with), effectively doing a reverse doubleheader where the national game is at 1:00 and the regional games are at 4:25. This is the one week the NFL could get away with doing Monday as if it were Sunday because many people have Monday off next week as many take the entire final week of the year off.

  32. Luke:

    ANYTHING is definitely possible. That said, I doubt the NFL would do as much juggling as I would do, especially given as John noted they made Tuesday a regional window to protect Sunday Ticket, likely on the orders of A T & T (parent of DirecTV).

  33. Luke
    Expect no changes to week 17 with the Vikings winning last night. GB-Minn should definitely be staying put now.

  35. Luke
    Bengals getting moved to Christmas??? Probably some Sunday during the week since that was never discussed.

  36. I find it so funny there is so much discussion on this all season when the NFL has only flexed ONE PRIMETIME GAME. Lmao. We are all wasting our time here, the flex schedule thing is such BS. They never flex out the cowboys or any east coast team, they never flex out a team with a star qb even if they are playing the bears or lions. I can go on and on…

  37. Will the NFL move Rams-Ravens to 1pm and have it as the main early game? It dosent make sense to have Cowboys-Cardinals and Rams-Ravens at the same time. It weird that they moved Raiders Colts to Fox as well so they could put both Dal-Az and Lar-Bal at 4:25. If your trying to maximize your best games Rams-Ravens is better for 1pm

  38. Hey Spence, Read my precious post. The NFL. Won’t do anything lmao. They’re gonna have 10 early window games and 3 late window games per usual. And at least 1 of these teams in prime time every week.. cowboys/packers/bucs/some crap east coast team..

    like honestly how many times must we watch the packers and chiefs destroy their divisor every year in primetime lmao.. flex schedule is a joke

  40. Here’s my take on things:

    Week 17

    # 1 – Cardinals(10-4) @ Cowboys(10-4) <—probably protected by FOX & I believe Cowboys can't be flexed anyway
    # 2 – Rams(10-4) @ Ravens (8-6) <— pretty big matchup and it's NFC vs. AFC and has huge implications in each Conference
    # 3 – Chiefs(10-4) @ Bengals(8-6) <—might have been a fun matchup for SNF and could be a blowout too, but Chiefs are maxed out on SNF until Week 18
    # 4 – Raiders(7-7) @ Colts(8-6) <—could be a very important matchup, especially if the Raiders beat the Broncos this week
    # 5 – Broncos(7-7) @ Chargers(8-6) <—big game if Broncos can beat the Raiders this week
    # 6 – Dolphins(7-7) @ Titans(9-5) <—intriguing matchup
    # 7 – Vikings(7-7) @ Packers(11-3) <—the tentative and very likely to stay as both are currently in the playoffs, but Packers already have the NFC North won

    Tentative – Vikings(7-7) @ Packers(11-3) – This has to be decided by the end of Week 15. That being said, there are some other compelling matchups in Week 17 and I'd prefer some of the others, but this should stay

    Week 18 (sounds so weird to say that)

    2 games will be moved from their preliminary Sunday slot to Sat. 01/08/22 and they’ll both be aired on ESPN/ABC. This is an interesting move to me. These 2 games and the SNF game will both be announced with the rest of the Week 18 schedule, at the conclusion of the Week 17 schedule (at the latest).

    Tentative – none of course

    # 1 – Steelers(7-6-1) @ Ravens(8-6) <—this game just won't die and might be important
    # 2 – Bengals(8-6) @ Browns(7-7) <—this game just won't die and might be important
    # 3 – 49ers(8-6) @ Rams(10-4) <—potentially pivotal NFC West tilt
    # 4 – Chargers(8-6) @ Raiders(7-7) <—hmm
    # 5 – Patriots(9-5) @ Dolphins(7-7) <—game could be huge or not
    # 6 – Cowboys(10-4) @ Eagles(7-7) <—if Eagles can win this week against the Giants ?
    # 7 – Chiefs(10-4) @ Broncos(7-7) <—likely not as already flexed in

    I currently have 7 games looking pretty good for the 3 Nationally televised games in Week 18 and then a bunch of who knows. We’ll see how that progresses. I'd hate to be the schedule maker for this Week 18. I think the NFL did themselves a bit of a disservice by adding the 2 Saturday games to the schedule, but I do know why they did. And with this Covid world, who knows.

    Any thoughts anyone?

    Go Pack Go this week at Lambeau vs. the Browns 🙂

  43. Morgan:

    I would say put it up because it’s quite possible the NFL could wind up doing Week 17 on a six-day schedule (and voted that way).

    As for Week 18, given what has happened today, I suspect a lot of the entire Week 18 schedule is going to hinge on Cardinals-Cowboys next week as well as the Monday night game this week. With that in mind:

    If the Dolphins win tomorrow night in New Orleans AND the Cardinals beat the Cowboys next Sunday, I suspect the two Saturday games in Week 18 would be Pats-Dolphins (4:30) and Cowboys-Eagles (8:15) as while ESPN DID have the earlier meeting between the two in Week 3, there is nothing that says both games of a divisional rivalry can’t be flexed and in this case, Cowboys-Eagles likely would be on Saturday if the Cowboys have any chance at the #2 seed to assure that is not a game where the Cowboys lay down and die.

  44. Looking ahead to NEXT season:

    With Christmas and New Year’s BOTH falling on a Sunday in 2022-’23, unless Disney’s contracts with the Tournament of Roses and Sugar Bowl committees allow for the start times to be adjusted for their games (which are on Monday 1/2 next year as is the case when New Year’s falls on a Sunday), then ESPN won’t have MNF in Week 17. With that in mind, what I would do for next season is this:

    Week 15: If there are still byes in Week 14 as there were this year, the Week 15 Thursday night game on Amazon Prime is between teams who got their bye week in Week 14 while ESPN/ABC gets the teams that normally would otherwise play Thursday night that week on Friday night (12/16) in a telecast that is in lieu of the Week 17 Monday nighter that would have to be skipped due to the Sugar Bowl being played at that time.

    The NFL plays the bulk of it’s games in Week 16 on MONDAY, December 26 (which is the observed holiday for Christmas) instead of Christmas Eve, while on Christmas Eve ESPN/ABC gets a doubleheader with games at 2:00 and 5:45 PM ET with the 5:45 game on the west coast (2:45 PM ET kickoff). with those games in lieu of the Week 18 doubleheader. Only the Sunday night game is played Christmas night while ESPN not only gets its normal Monday night game, but for that week if a game is “flexed” it’s flexed to MNF, NOT SNF (the SNF flex would start a week earlier because of this).

  46. Luke:

    Chiefs-Bengals is on the singleheader network (CBS), so if that game got flexed AT ALL, it would be flexed to Sunday Night Football, which is highly doubtful.

    There are no Saturday games this week because it’s New Year’s Day and you have bowl games all day.

  48. Luke: cin-cle could get flexed to Saturday wk18 if: Cincinnati loses, Cleveland loses, Pittsburgh wins and Baltimore wins. Saturday game 1 would be 8-7-1 Pittsburgh playing 9-7 Baltimore. game 2 of Saturday would be 9-7 Cincinnati playing 7-9 Cleveland. Winner of pit-bal would hope Cincinnati loses against Cleveland so pit/bal could win the division.

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