Note: This post does not incorporate the result of the Thursday night game.
I decided to wait and see what the Vikings did at the trade deadline before I began writing this post, to inform what I say in the Week 11 section (and as it happens, Kirk Cousins’ injury has an impact on several other weeks as well), but in retrospect I should have at least written this opening section as soon as I came up with it because now I’m struggling to remember what I was going to say here. I know I was going to say something about how there were some more upsets this past week but perhaps the ones that most stood out to me were a pair of teams going in opposite directions, one of which was the Broncos. After beating up on the Chiefs without Taylor Swift (and how weird it is to think that that’s as notable an absence as any player), the Broncos have now won two straight and might be, possibly, climbing up to respectability, with the Broncos defense showing up in a way they never did against the Dolphins and Russell Wilson having a respectable, even good, day.
Then again, the other team they’ve beaten in the past two weeks was the Green Bay Packers, which have now lost four straight after a 2-1 start, including a loss to a Raiders team that just fired their coach. I’m not certain the Packers were the other team I was going to mention, but they do have a couple of games in featured windows that are now looking very vulnerable.
How NFL flexible scheduling works: (see also the NFL’s own page on flex schedule procedures)
- Up to two games in Weeks 5-10 (the “early flex” period), and any number of games from Week 11 onward, may be flexed into Sunday Night Football. Any number of games from Week 12 onward may be flexed into Monday Night Football, and up to two games from Week 13 onward may be flexed into Thursday Night Football. In addition, in select weeks in December a number of games may be listed as “TBD”, with two or three of those games being assigned to be played on Saturday. Note that I only cover early flexes if a star player on one of the teams is injured.
- Only games scheduled for Sunday afternoon, or set aside for a potential move to Saturday, may be flexed into one of the flex-eligible windows – not existing primetime games or games in other standalone windows. The game currently listed in the flex-eligible window will take the flexed-in game’s space on the Sunday afternoon slate, generally on the network that the flexed-in game was originally scheduled for. The league may also move Sunday afternoon games between 1 PM ET and 4:05 or 4:25 PM ET.
- Thursday Night Football flex moves must be announced 28 days in advance. Sunday and Monday Night Football moves must be announced 12 days in advance, except for Sunday night games in Week 14 onward, which can be announced at any point up until 6 days in advance.
- CBS and Fox have the right to protect one game each per week, among the games scheduled for their networks, from being flexed into primetime windows. During the early flex period, they may protect games at any point once the league tells them they’re thinking of pulling the flex. It’s not known when they must protect games in the main flex period, only that it’s “significantly closer to each game date” relative to the old deadline of Week 5. My assumption is that protections are due five weeks in advance, in accordance with the 28-day deadline for TNF flexes. Protections have never been officially publicized, and have not leaked en masse since 2014, so can only be speculated on.
- Supposedly, CBS and Fox are also guaranteed one half of each division rivalry. Notably, some Week 18 games (see below) have their other halves scheduled for the other conference’s network, though none are scheduled for primetime.
- No team may appear more than seven times in primetime windows – six scheduled before the season plus one flexed in. This appears to consider only the actual time the game is played; Amazon’s Black Friday game does not count even though the rest of their TNF slate does, and NBC’s Saturday afternoon game Week 16 doesn’t count but their Peacock game that night does. This post contains a list of all teams’ primetime appearances entering the season.
- Teams may play no more than two Thursday games following Sunday games, and (apparently) no more than one of them can be on the road.
- In Week 18 the entire schedule, consisting entirely of games between divisional opponents, is set on six days’ notice, usually during the previous week’s Sunday night game. One game will be scheduled for Sunday night, usually a game that decides who wins the division, a game where the winner is guaranteed to make the playoffs while the loser is out, or a game where one team makes the playoffs with a win but falls behind the winner of another game, and thus loses the division and/or misses the playoffs, with a loss. Two more games with playoff implications are scheduled for Saturday on ABC and ESPN, with the remaining games doled out to CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoon, with the league generally trying to maximize what each team has to play for. Protections and appearance limits do not apply to Week 18.
- Click here to learn how to read the charts.
Week 11: You’d think the Broncos’ newfound success would be good news for their Week 11 clash with the Vikings keeping its spot, especially as the Vikings have been on their own tear back to respectability in recent weeks… until Kirk Cousins’ renaissance season came to a crashing halt. Now the Vikings have traded for Josh Dobbs, whose old team benched him without even knowing for sure who they were benching him for, and who will now be starting the mighty Jaren Hall. The Vikings have gone 3-0 including knocking off the 49ers since losing Justin Jefferson against the Chiefs, raising the prospect of the Ewing Theory kicking in for Cousins as well, but it’s a rocky proposition.
Regardless, there isn’t really much in the way of better options. Fox reportedly protecting Niners-Jaguars for Week 10 lends credence to the notion that the one-end-of-each-divisional-matchup rule allows networks to refrain from protecting games when the other half is airing on another network (and the fact they needed to file a protection at all may make me reconsider what happened with Bears-Chargers Week 8), so in all likelihood the only games available to flex in involve teams with the exact same 3-5 record as the Broncos, at best. Titans-Jaguars could be an option, but even if the Titans had knocked off the Steelers, if NBC didn’t want Titans-Jaguars when it was a division title game last year do they really want it in the middle of the regular season with a 4-4 Titans squad? That’s especially the case since the Broncos are on bye this week, meaning their record can’t get any worse and the best Titans-Jags could have hoped for was for the Titans to be one full game better than the Broncos. Final prediction: No changes.
Week 12: The first Monday Night Football game ever to be eligible to be flexed out may well be flexed out, but this is the week where in years past I’d be saying “Thanksgiving week, paucity of good games”, and sure enough the options don’t exactly look encouraging. The Steelers and Bengals are starting to look respectable, but the other game between them is scheduled to be on NBC, and once you look past games like that the best option becomes a game involving a Raiders team that just fired their coach, and a game in Bucs-Colts that pits two teams below .500. Unless one of those teams starts performing drastically better in the next two weeks, you’re going to have to put up with the Bears in primetime again.
Week 13: The Packers’ losing streak is opening the door for their game against the Chiefs to be flexed out, and all the games shown here are Fox games that aren’t divisional games (I have CBS protecting Broncos-Texans but Colts-Titans or Chargers-Patriots are also possible). So there’s a very real chance for Chiefs-Packers to be flexed out for Lions-Saints or Falcons-Jets. The question, though, is whether either of those games will pop a bigger rating than Chiefs-Packers, especially if Swift makes the trek up to Lambeau Field.
Week 14: This is the last week before the deadline for flexing out Pats-Steelers, and I’m inclined to think it’s likely to keep its spot. Texans-Jets is the best option available right now, and it likely requires the Texans to beat the Bucs and the Patriots to lose to Washington; even then it’d be a massive drop in name value and wouldn’t involve an Aaron Rodgers comeback, and the league might want to keep Texans-Jets on standby as the one game that can be flexed in for Packers-Giants on Monday night. Still, my instinct is that Packers-Giants has more value on its own than Pats-Steelers, and flexing Texans-Jets to Thursday opens the door to replacing Packers-Giants with any game the league wants. If the league wants to get a test of TNF flexing out of the way this might be their best shot, though the next couple weeks involve games that aren’t that great either. (Who’d have thought the Jets might be being flexed into Thursday night when Rodgers went down?)
Week 15: If it weren’t for Cousins’ injury Vikings-Bengals might be lining up to give NFL Network an actually respectable game on its Saturday slate. Even if the Vikings go into the tank, though, they’d need the Bears to catch them to fall out of contention for a Saturday game – or maybe for the Browns to be closer to playoff contention than the Bengals, but that seems unlikely. Meanwhile Eagles-Seahawks continues to be favored to replace Chiefs-Patriots on Monday night. (I only now, as I was writing this, noticed that the Raiders’ record hadn’t been updating the last two weeks and fixed that on my spreadsheet, but given the options available a Thursday flex seems distinctly unlikely.)
Week 16: In the past I’d have skipped this week with NBC abandoning Christmas Eve night to NFL Network and playing non-flexible games on Saturday instead, but by all appearances TNF flexing is in place even if shorter-distance flexes aren’t. Saints-Rams isn’t a great game, but at the moment it’s not worth it to flex out a game involving a 3-5 team for one involving a 3-4 team, as the best-case scenario would likely be right now. Lions-Vikings would be a bit more compelling if the league would look past the return match coming in Week 18, but the fact that there’s only a two-game margin between them would likely ward them off of it since it would mean there’s a distinct possibility of a division title game, to say nothing of the possibility of the Vikings going into the tank without Cousins.
Week 17: The Packers’ struggles and the loss of Cousins, taken together, make Packers-Vikings a very good candidate to be flexed out. Dolphins-Ravens is a good game that’s likely to be unprotected, but the question is whether that would leave CBS with too weak of an early window with Raiders-Colts and Patriots-Bills. You could also see Fox leave Steelers-Seahawks unprotected in favor of Niners-Commies or Saints-Bucs, since it’ll be pinned to the late singleheader with limited distribution. Speaking of Saints-Bucs, if the NFC South is shaping up to be the tire fire the North isn’t, that game could have significant playoff implications if that outweighs the ease of setting the Week 18 schedule. If the Jets and/or Browns go into the tank, the Thursday and Sunday night deadlines being three weeks apart could leave the league, and Fox, in an odd position, especially since Saints-Bucs might not realistically be movable to Thursday since its eligibility depends on being able to give the Saints a full week off when the Bucs wouldn’t.
Playoff picture charts and Week 18 coverage begin Week 9.
I agree with no flex Week 11. Unfortunately, we’re stuck watching that mess. At this point, I seriously don’t think any of these games are going to get flexed except one, possibly two. Packers-Vikings needs to be flexed out, ideally for Dolphins-Ravens. Not sure how reluctant the NFL will be on flexing that day because it’s New Year’s Eve. The other one is Chiefs-Patriots, but that requires the Patriots to be 3-9 or worse coming into the decision, otherwise it’s probably staying. I’m not sure that any of the week 12 flex options are good enough to take out bears-vikings at this point since the compelling matchups are between afc south and nfc south teams who don’t have the biggest markets.
If the NFL really goes the whole year and only makes one flex decision, the only thing that I really ask for is Dolphins-Ravens week 17 SNF. That is a potential divisional round or even conference championship preview, and this late in the season, needs to be shown to the nation, not in a 1pm slot lost among 8 other games. Not even sure why that game wasn’t primetime in the first place given the thriller that these two teams had last year..
Walt’s Lover: I’d also like a flex Week 13 with Lions-Saints replacing Chiefs-Packers but for it to happen Green Bay has to be 3-7 or more likely 2-8 to be flexed out.
Repost from the prior thread with some updates:
Week 10: Once we learned FOX protected 49ers-Jags, that likely sealed it for Jets-Raiders remaining since the Jets will be no worse than 4-4 and the Raiders IMO should be able to beat the Giants to get to 4-5.
Week 11: Vikings-Broncos SHOULD BE replaced, however, is there really a good game that can be flexed? Steelers-Browns can’t be flexed because the first meeting was MNF in Week 2 and it’s possible neither Seahawks-Rams nor Bucs-49ers could be flexed because the 49ers are in Seattle for the Thanksgiving Night game on NBC. No other game is appealing enough to flex. Would the NFL ask CBS to allow Steelers-Browns to be flexed to SNF?
Week 12: Ravens-Chargers likely stays on SNF, Jags-Texans likely replaces Bears-Vikings on MNF.
Week 13: Seahawks-Cowboys stays on TNF, Chiefs-Packers stays on SNF and Bengals-Jags remains on MNF, however, if the Packers continue to falter, Falcons-Jets could wind up replacing it since that game could have impact on both conference races.
Week 14: GB-NYG likely is on ESPN (ABC in New York and Green Bay/Milwaukee), TEN-MIA is on ABC (ESPN in New York and Green Bay/Milwaukee) as the only possible flex for Week 14 MNF for Packers-Giants would be Texans-Jets (as both New York teams are at home that week). Titans-Dolphins likely has only Bucs-Falcons, which could decide the NFC South as a suitable replacement since Seahawks-49ers can’t be flexed due to the first meeting being Thanksgiving night on NBC (and CBS likely protects Bills-Chiefs, they have Falcons-Bucs at 1:00). NO WAY Eagles-Cowboys is flexed out of SNF.
Week 15: If Chargers-Raiders is flexed out, I suspect Steelers-Colts, one of the games that is in consideration for the three Saturday games would replace it and Chargers-Raiders becomes the middle (4:30 PM ET) game that Saturday on NFL Network. I don’t see Ravens-Jags being flexed out of SNF, Chiefs-Pats could be flexed out of MNF with one of Cowboys-Bills or Eagles-Seahawks (whichever one is NOT protected by FOX) replacing Chiefs Pats.
Week 16: Saints-Rams likely stays on TNF. I don’t see any other flexes possible given it is Christmas Weekend. NBC and Peacock have Saturday games as I believe NBC has a contractual commitment to air “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve AND I believe NBC affiliates in some markets would have had to pre-empt a Christmas Eve SNF telecast for religious services anyway.
Week 17: For now, Jets-Browns stays on TNF, however, Saints-Bucs is also a possibility (see below). That week, MNF is on SATURDAY night (Lions-Cowboys) due to the College Football Playoff Semifinals being New Year’s Day/Night (and I believe is an ABC-only game). Doubt that would be flexed out anyway. I suspect Packers-Vikings gets flexed out of SNF for one of Saints-Bucs, Dolphins-Ravens or Steelers-Seahawks with another possibly replacing Jets-Browns on TNF.
Assuming Saints-Rams remains Thursday night football in Week 16, I could see Saints-Bucs on TNF in Week 17 even though it would be a third TNF appearance for the Saints and second road game. That would be a situation where the Saints would be playing such a Week 17 TNF game on normal rest while the Bucs would be playing that game on three days rest (and there is a precedent for this as in 1997 the then-Tennessee Oilers played on Thanksgiving day in Dallas against the Cowboys and then played the following Thursday in Cincinnati against the Bengals who were playing that game at home on three days rest with the Bengals winning that game easily 41-14 as Corey Dillon ran for 246 yards against the Oilers). In that situation, I suspect the NFL and NFLPA would waive the normal rules against since since the Saints are playing Thursday in Week 16 so they would be playing on normal rest.
Week 18: Right now, I suspect Steelers-Ravens is a prime candidate for the final Sunday night slot if it’s for the AFC North as is Bills-Dolphins if that is for the AFC East with the other airing Saturday on ESPN. The NFC game (assuming one game from each conference is) on ESPN that Saturday right now looks like Cowboys-Commanders as even if that doesn’t mean anything it’s still Dallas-Washington and that in itself makes it a good game for that Saturday.
My Thoughts on Upcoming Flex Weeks:
Week 11: With the Titans losing this past Thursday, Vikings-Broncos looks good to keep its spot. Only way this is flexed out is if Tampa Bay wins while the Falcons & Saints lose this week. Even if that happens, I foresee Bucs-49ers being protected by FOX with Burkhardt/Olsen calling it. I say this because both FOX & CBS either had (Week 5) or reportedly will (Week 10) have the A-Team calling 1:05 PT games if the networks see it as good enough, without extenuating circumstances.
Week 12: Houston losing to Carolina last week doesn’t quite damper their chances of hosting MNF Week 12 against Jacksonville as much as you might think. They play Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, & Arizona before their duel with the Jags, & if they beat Tampa Bay & the Bengals, I see that game becoming Week 12 MNF especially if Minnesota loses this week or next.
Week 13: At this rate, Chiefs-Packers should definitely be flexed out, but the only way I can feel mostly sure that happens is if Green Bay is 2-8 by the time a decision has to be made (Week 11) It’ll be more of a 50/50 chance if they’re 3-7, but this one may just stay due to names & ratings. If it gets flexed, Lions-Saints probably replaces it, as even if New Orleans loses to Atlanta the week before, I think they’ll still be tied for the 7th seed by then, & Detroit is better than the Jets.
Week 14: Same song & dance as the week above, just without Mahomes. Morgan’s idea of flexing Jets-Texans to TNF so the NFL can have their pick of what flexes out Packers-Giants is interesting, but imo the only way this gets flexed out if if the Texans & Jets are 6-5 each by Week 12 with the Packers & Giants having 2-3 wins each.
Week 15: I see Eagles-Seahawks being flexed to MNF, as it’s an amazing game that will get buried under Cowboys-Bills, which is almost certainly protected by FOX. Chiefs-Patriots may stay due to name brand, but the Patriots will probably be 3-9 by Week 13.
Week 17: Packers-Vikings is almost certainly going to be flexed out, but for what? Dolphins-Ravens leaves CBS barren in the morning slot, so it’s either Steelers-Seahawks, or whichever of 49ers-Commies & Saints-Bucs isn’t protected. I’m gonna say Saints-Bucs is protected, so Steelers-Seahawks ends up SNF.
Week 18: Can’t definitively say any game is going to SNF or Saturday yet, but my feelings about their chances.
Browns-Bengals: Maybe a Saturday move?
Vikings-Lions: Big 10 AM energy right here
Bears-Packers: Same as above
Jags-Titans: Probably not unless Tennessee gets lucky
Texans-Colts: Probably not
Broncos-Raiders: Same as above
Bills-Dolphins: My prediction for Game 272
Jets-Pats: Probably stays at 10 AM for Wild Card reasons
Falcons-Saints: I think this ends up as the Saturday night cap for the NFC South
Eagles-Giants: Maybe a 1:25 game for 1 seed reasons with San Fran?
Seahawks-Cardinals: Nope
Chiefs-Chargers: Possible move to Saturday, especially if LA is the 8th or 9th seed & needs teams to lose on Sunday
Rams-49ers: No because of Philly & Seattle
Cowboys-Commies: No, but maybe 1:25
Bucs-Panthers: No
Steelers-Ravens: Has an ok chance
Repost:
Flexing:
Week 10 SNF will likely stay NYJ-LV, even with the Raiders loss tonight, but SF-JAX would be my 1st choice, followed by CLE-BAL and NO-MIN
Please oh please flex out Week 11’s SNF of MIN-DEN, but now likely to stay due to the rise of these teams. NYJ-BUF would be a nice option if not for the prior being in Primetime. So that leaves us with PIT-CLE as an option
Week 12 SNF likely to stay as BAL-LAC
Week 12’s MNF CHI-MIN needs to go with either PIT-CIN or BUF-PHI replacing it or maybe NO-ATL….
Week 13’s TNF needs to be decided by 11/02/23 and SEA-DAL and is going nowhere though
Week 13’s SNF will likely stay as KC-GB, unless my Pack really fall off (an my Pack have fallen off)
Week 13’s MNF will remain CIN-JAX
Week 14’s TNF needs to be decided by 11/09/23 and NE-PIT is currently in trouble with some decent options….though it’s 2 recognizable teams and only 2 TNF games can be flexed…..probably stays put
Week 14’s SNF will stay PHI-DAL of course
Week 14’s MNF games are TEN-MIA and GB-NYG and Titans-Dolphins is likely to stay and Packers-Giants could get replaced with decent options, as mentioned for TNF and that’s looking more and more likely
Week 15’s TNF LAC-LV likely in ugh, as that must be decided by 11/16/23….hmm
Week 15’s three (3) Saturday NFL Network seem to be needing to be decided by 12/10/23 or 12/11/23. ATL-CAR (no), MIN-CIN (well, good chance), CHI-CLE (no), DEN-DET (looking good now), and PIT-IND (yes, probably)……
Week 15’s SNF is staying with BAL-JAX
Week 15’s MNF KC-NE should lose its spot, but with the Week 8 SNF decision I’m not convinced it’s going anywhere, though it should
Week 16’s TNF that must be decided by 11/23/23 should stay with NO-LAR, as that’s currently a decent matchup and it’s Christmas weekend and it’s the only game that can be flexed out that week
Week 17’s TNF that must be decided by 11/30/23 looks like it might stay all of a sudden with NYJ-CLE (please of please, lots of snow!!!)
Week 17’s SNF is GB-MIN may stay, though there might be 3 (?) options to replace it
Week 18’s two (2) Saturday games…….and SNF game….will ATL-NO be a win and in / lose and out game? If so, that will be SNF…..the 2 Saturday games could be….PIT-BAL, CLE-CIN, BUF-MIA….hmmmm
I hadn’t considered the Swiftie factor last week. Looking over her tour schedule, the Week 13 Sunday game (12/3) is safely after the South American leg of her tour ends on 11/26, with the Asian portion not starting until February (the week before the Super Bowl; I’m sure the Japanese will understand when she postpones her dates there, or more likely, she’ll be done with Travis Kelce by then).
Still, the bigger consideration is whether the Chiefs are likely to clinch the AFC West with that game, and specifically whether they could clinch by the end of Week 11, when the NFL and NBC would need to make the decision to pull the game. Since they no longer can do so (they were only 2 games ahead of the Chargers and 2 1/2 ahead of the rest of the division when they left for Germany), and it still is most likely that is the game that will give them the division, it will stay on NBC.
https://fxtwitter.com/aricdilalla/status/1721330500575367207?s=46&t=28MYQV8koEY5Lt1iuZvRoA
Broncos stay on Sunday night vs Vikings
Isaiah:
No shock. There literally was no game to flex as I wrote above.
The NFL is going to regret big time not flexing 49ers Jaguars to replace Cowboys Giants in the 325 slot next week. Daniel Jones likely suffered a season ending injury and now this game if it isn’t already a huge mismatch. Once again NFL always giving the Cowboys first class being in as many national games as possible. No one is going to watch Cowboys Giants no one. I rather watch 49ers Jaguars.
Robert: I agree. The nation needs to see 49ers-Jags, but any Cowboys game, no matter how bad the team is, will draw ratings. They can still have Burkhardt/Olsen on the 1pm call.
No surprise about Week 11.. I am now intrigued by week 12, however. Vikings are now above .500, and could very well beat the Saints next week. If the Vikings are 6-4, does their MNF game really get flexed? What about if they’re 5-5? Minny and CHI are much bigger markets than JAX and HOU.. but with the crazy performance Stroud just put up, that gives the Texans national appeal. Personally, I would much rather watch Jags-Texans, but how realistic is this flex? Maybe if the Texans beat the Bengals, which is pretty unlikely..
Robert:
I think this is a case where FOX knows Giants-Cowboys is going to be a blowout but it’s possible local authorities didn’t want the game moved to Noon local time (1:00 PM ET), which would have allowed 49ers-Jags to be moved to 4:25 PM ET. I’m sure a lot of things are centered around the church for many and moving a game on short notice to Noon from 3:25 creates logistical issues (in fact, back in 2013 it was why a Cardinals-Eagles game that was expected to be flexed to SNF was NOT due to a situation where Giants at then-Redskins was SNF and would have been flexed out except local authorities would not let them move such to a 1:00 PM start (I believe 1:00 PM Sunday games at FedEx Field except for playoff games have to be scheduled that way before the season starts). That would have forced that game to 4:05 which was a problem that particular week because the Bills were playing the Falcons in Toronto in a game that was airing nationally on TSN in Canada as a 4:05 PM ET start and could not be moved off of that because of the Canadian broadcast and there also was a west coast game that would have had too much of the country getting a 4:05 singleheader game opposite a doubleheader game. That may be why Giants-Cowboys stayed at 4:25 and not moved to 1:00 PM ET with 49ers-Jags moved to 4:25 PM ET.
Robert: They won’t regret anything because they don’t care about the fans.
A potential flex game I haven’t heard many people mention: KC-Raiders. If Vegas wins against the Jets next week, & Chicago loses again, it could happen.
Vegas would be 5-5 by the time a decision has to be made, & even though they’re likely to be 5-6 going into the game if they beat the Jets.
This game being flexed in would be carried by Mahomes, Swift, & KC. I’d personally rather have Jags-Texans flexed in, but I doubt that’ll happen.
An issue with this is that the Chiefs are likely to have three primetime games in a row, but I don’t think the NFL is going to care about that when it’s Kansas City.
Also the fact that if they get flexed in, they’d be over the primetime game limit, but that could be mitigated by flexing out Chiefs-Patriots Week 15 for Eagles-Seahawks.
Chiefs Packers Is Not In The Best Shape Because the Chiefs are 7-2 and the Packers 3-5 That’s lIkely to become the first flex of the season but i could be right.
Isaiah:
I don’t think KC-Raiders can be flexed because the teams are playing a national game on Christmas Day (yes, that is a CBS game but the rules may prevent the first game from being flexed because the second is NOT a Sunday game). Texans-Jets, especially with CJ Stroud playing like a monster this week I think is a prime candidate to be flexed as it would be against Trevor Lawrence. I also suspect unless the Packers win a couple more games Packers-Giants flexed out for Texans-Jets, the only game as of now that Packers-Giants can be flexed out for.
A thought looking ahead to next year:
As Christmas falls on a Wednesday in 2024, I suspect next season unless the NFL adds a 19th Week to the regular season (second bye tied to mid-week games), the NFL is going to have to be creative to have Christmas Day games.
One scenario I could see is the week before Christmas, Amazon Prime gets their game on Friday instead of Thursday and we see a “double doubleheader” week before Christmas with CBS or FOX getting their games on Saturday and the other on Sunday (not including SNF or MNF) with it likely agreed that week the SNF and MNF games can’t be flexed. The Christmas Day games and likely also the Thursday night game 12/26 in this scenario would likely be between teams that played Friday or Saturday.
Isaiah, the bills are currently in a 3 game primetime streak, so that worry is unnecessary.
Max:
That may be true. but there is a bye week mixed in.
After week 9 here are games that I will be flexed out:
Week 12: Ravens at Chargers will very likely remain on SNF while I think Bears at Vikings for MNF is very likely to be flexed out in favor of Jaguars Texans.
Week 13: I think Chiefs Packers gets flexed out of SNF in favor of Lions Saints since Fox has the double header and can only protect 49ers Eagles for that week.
Week 14: I think Patriots Steelers on Thursday night football gets flexed out in favor of Texans Jets, or Jaguars Browns. I also think Packers Giants one of the 2 games on Monday Night Football for that double header will very likely be flexed out since the Giants are a total mess right now while the Packers are no better, I think Texans Jets if not flexed to Thursday night could be a possibility here. Maybe 49ers Seahawks even though they do they play each other on Thanksgiving night in Seattle.
Week 15: I think the Saturday Triple Header will be Vikings Bengals, Colts Steelers and Broncos Lions. I think Eagles Seahawks replaces Chiefs Patriots on Monday Night Football.
Week 16: I think Saints Rams will remain the TNF game for now as I heard that Stafford could be back next week. Does anyone know if Broncos Patriots on Sunday Night Christmas Eve is flexible because that looks like a horrible matchup right now.
Week 17: I think right now Packers Vikings will get flexed out of SNF in favor of Dolphins Ravens if I had to guess right now but that is still too early to tell.
Hello all,
The only 2 decent options to replace MIN-DEN on Week 11 SNF are PIT-CLE and NYJ-BUF and both of these were Primetime matchups in the first 2 weeks of the season.
@ Robert – Broncos/Patriots can’t be flexed out.
More to come later on Morgan’s newest blog.