NFL schedule release day, while not exactly the greatest highlight of the football calendar, at least provides us NFL fans with a little post-draft reprieve from the boring life that is the off-season. With the heaping pile of nothing-of-note really happening between the draft and pre-season training, it's easy to see why so many fans around the world get a little bit excited.
Once the schedule is released, fans can start taking wild guesses as to which stretches are the easiest/most difficult, predicting exactly how their season's going to go, circling those divisional matchups, booking days off work to accomodate for night games and booking flights and accomodation to watch a game live. Some will even start predicting which uniforms their team will wear in which games. A lot seemingly gets made out of little, but t'is the nature of the beast when you love a sport that's 'off' between February and September. We have to get our fix somehow, right?
The best part, I'm sure you'll agree, isn't the bit where you actually find out when your team plays who, it's the announcement videos. This is where the social teams and in-house content creators get to shine as all 32 teams come up with creative videos to showcase their schedules. A personal favourite of mine from the 2023 releases was the Denver Broncos (at least they got something right, eh?), who had a U.S Office inspired schedule release.
(Peyton Manning & Angela Kinsey reveal the Broncos' 2023 schedule | The Trilogy Concludes - Denver Broncos YouTube channel)
But, in my personal opinion, the real winner was the Tennessee Titans release video where they asked random people on the street to name the teams by their logo and some were, at best, strange.
Here's what you can expect from the next few days as the NFL prepares to release the 2024 schedules
When is the schedule released?
In most years, the schedule tends to get released the 2nd Thursday after the draft which would've been the 9th of May, but due to various reasons, the NFL have pushed it back and it's currently believed to be Weds the 15th of May. However, in the day or two beforehand, some key fixtures get released so keep an eye out on team social medias, Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero and the official NFL account for up-to-date accurate info. Maybe even certain networks like ESPN, Fox & NBC too.
Which games will be announced early?
It's usually the key dates and games that get released a day or two early. Of course, we all care about ALL of our own teams 17 regular season games, but the big, nationally televised games of note are the ones the whole world is looking at. I can't officially tell you exactly what games will be released early, but the most likely will be:
2024 Kickoff: as is tradition, the Super Bowl Champions will kickoff the regular season at home. Of course and for the 2nd year in a row, that would be the Kansas City Chiefs. Last year they hosted the Detroit Lions in an extremely close 20-21 loss. We already know it will be Thursday Night Football, we already know who the home team is. All that's left is to find out who they're playing.
International Series: this season the NFL will play 5 overseas regular season games. 3 in London, 1 in Germany and 1 in Brazil. We already know the relevant information regarding the Brazil game (Packers @ Eagles, Fri 6th Sep), so that information doesn't need to be released. However, we're still waiting on the away teams to be released for UK & Germany games.
6th Oct: __ @ Jaguars (Wembley)
13th Oct: __ @ Bears (Tottenham)
20th Oct: __ @ Vikings (Tottenham)
TBD: __ @ Panthers (Allianz Arena)
You can expect these matchups to be released early.
Thanksgiving Football: one of the biggest days on the footballing calendar. Despite not celebrating Thanksgiving in the UK, we can at least celebrate and be thankful for 3 games of football starting around 5:30pm on a Thursday. Thanksgiving this year is on the 28th of November, with all 32 teams playing over the holiday weekend. As per tradition, the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys will each host a game on Thanksgiving, and the 3rd game is currently unknown. I'd expect all 3 games to be released early for unarguably the biggest (midseason) weekend of football.
Xmas Day: playing on Xmas Day is a newer addition to the NFL calendar and one that's not been the most welcomed around the States anyway. However, with the holiday landing on a Wednesday this year, you'd have been forgiven for thinking the NFL wouldn't actually play games on the day given the extra short week. That's not the case and they have confirmed that 2 games will be played on Xmas Day. You can probably expect these games to be announced early with everybody's eyes firmly looking to see if their team's going to be playing. What may also be helpful, is that around this time of year, with college football's season finishing, the NFL do play Saturday games. I would imagine that any teams playing on Xmas Day would more than likely be playing on the Saturday or even the preceding TNF game to allow for recovery on a short week.
Some other Prime Time games: this isn't always the case from my recollection, but I wouldn't be shocked if a number or all TNF, SNF & MNF games were announced too for the season. Great news for UK fans as we can run to work a day early and book the morning off if our team is playing.
The Release
On the 15th of May (or whatever date it does get released) you can expect a full released at around 8pm Eastern Time (1am GMT) and immediately, all 32 teams will post their release video. Then, following that, the NFL and indiviudual teams will be releasing full grapghics, articles and more highlighting certain games and working through the schedule. I personally cannot wait for the phone wallpapers. I always get the Lions' and it's then my phone wallpaper until most of the way through the season. Some other fan based outlets will be making their own too which are usually really good.
At the end of the day, this is a time where (as previously mentioned), social media teams get to let their hair down and have fun. The upcoming season starts to feel all the more real and this gives us something to talk about. It's not exactly the greatest day on the planet, but it's something amid a whole bunch of nothin'.
If, for some reason you really want to know how I feel about the Lions' schedule - feel free to follow me on X (formerly known as Twitter) or Instagram. Of course, the Hurlde the Line guys will be talking all about it on the next episode and you can follow the AAW Network to get all of the discourse too.
Get yourself ready for the new season with some fresh swag from Fanatics or USA Sports.
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