NFL regular season schedule announced

By SDCN Editor

The NFL announced its 18-week, 272-game regular-season schedule for 2023, which kicks off on September 7, in Kansas City and concludes with 16 division games in Week 18 – two on Saturday, January 6, and 14 on Sunday, January 7.

The 2023 NFL schedule, powered by AWS, will feature each team playing 17 regular-season games and three preseason games for the third consecutive year. The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The AFC will be the home conference for the 17th game in 2023.

The NFL uses the power of Amazon Web Services to power its schedule-making process. There are approximately a quadrillion possible schedule combinations each NFL season and over 26,000 factors to take into consideration such as stadium availability, travel requirements, primetime games, competitive fairness, and division rivalries.

The NFL’s 104th season begins with the league’s annual primetime kickoff game, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, September 7 (8:20 PM ET, NBC). The Lions finished the 2022 regular season with wins in eight of their final 10 games while the Chiefs won each of the final eight games last season, including the playoffs.

Week 1 continues Sunday, September 10, with a double-doubleheader featuring four Sunday afternoon games in every market. On CBS at 4:25 p.m. ET, two 2022 playoff teams meet as Miami visits the Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas travels to Denver in an AFC West showdown and Philadelphia visits New England in a rematch of Super Bowls XXXIX and LII. On FOX at 4:25 p.m. ET, the two teams with the most regular-season wins in NFL history – Green Bay and Chicago – meet at Soldier Field to renew their rivalry while the Los Angeles Rams travel to Seattle in a rematch of their thrilling Week 18 overtime contest that helped the Seahawks secure a 2022 playoff berth.

Later that day, NBC’s Sunday Night Football begins with the Dallas Cowboys visiting the New York Giants (8:20 PM ET), in a matchup between NFC East divisional rivals and 2022 playoff teams. NBC will televise one game each Sunday night in Weeks 1-15 and Week 17. On Saturday in Week 16, NBC will feature Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (4:30 p.m. ET) while Peacock will exclusively stream Buffalo at the Los Angeles Chargers at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Kickoff Weekend concludes on September 11, with ESPN/ABC’s Monday Night Football, featuring Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets hosting Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m. ET) in an AFC East showdown. YouTube is the presenting sponsor of Kickoff Weekend, marking the first time a League partner will brand the opening weekend of the season, inclusive of Thursday night, the weekend games, and Monday night.

ESPN will televise 16 games this season (one game each Monday night in Weeks 1-15 and Saturday night in Week 17) and will be simulcast on ABC in Weeks 1, 11, and 17, including the Super Bowl LVII rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City on Monday, November 20. In Weeks 2, 3, and 14, there will be two Monday night games on ESPN and ABC. In Weeks 2 and 3, the two Monday night games broadcast at 7:15 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET. In Week 14, the two Monday night games will both kick off at 8:15 p.m. ET, as Tennessee visits Miami (ESPN) and the New York Giants host Green Bay (ABC). In Week 16, ABC will broadcast the conclusion of the NFL’s Christmas Day triple-header between Baltimore and San Francisco (8:15 PM ET). There will be no Monday night game on the final regular-season weekend (Week 18) to provide more flexibility for the scheduling of the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs.

Additionally, ESPN/ABC will air two games with playoff implications on the Saturday of Week 18, January 6, at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET. These games will be selected following the conclusion of Week 17.

Thursday Night Football will air exclusively on Prime Video, kicking off its slate in Week 2 as the Philadelphia Eagles host the Minnesota Vikings (8:15 p.m. ET). Prime Video will broadcast 15 Thursday Night Football games between Weeks 2-17 (excluding Thanksgiving night) and exclusively stream the first-ever NFL Black Friday game when the New York Jets host the Miami Dolphins in Week 12 (3:00 p.m. ET).

NFL Network will exclusively televise eight games – four international games, three games in Week 15 on Saturday, December 16 and the New England Patriots visiting the Denver Broncos on Sunday, December 24 (8:15 p.m. ET).

The NFL schedule features five international regular-season games – three in the UK and two in Germany, marking the first-ever regular-season NFL games to be hosted in Frankfurt. As part of the League’s expansion of the regular season to 17 games, it was determined that beginning with the 2022 season, up to four of the teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth regular-season home game would instead be designated to play a neutral-site international game each year.

The international slate features games in three consecutive weeks, beginning in London at Wembley Stadium in Week 4 with a matchup between Jacksonville and Atlanta (9:30 a.m. ET, ESPN+). The London action shifts to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the next two weeks, as Jacksonville and Buffalo meet in Week 5 (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) and Tennessee and Baltimore face off in Week 6 (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). The Jaguars are scheduled to become the first NFL team to play two regular-season games outside of the United States in the same season.

As part of the League’s commitment to playing regular-season games in Germany, the NFL will play two games in 2023 at Frankfurt Stadium – home of Eintracht Frankfurt, having played the inaugural Germany game last season in Munich. In Week 9, Kansas City takes on Miami (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) and in Week 10, Indianapolis meets New England (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) to wrap up the 2023 international games.

The Madden Thanksgiving Celebration will feature a tripleheader on Thursday, November 23, with three divisional matchups. The first game will feature a pair of NFC North foes, as the Packers travel to Detroit to face the Lions (12:30 p.m. ET, FOX). The late afternoon game will match two NFC East rivals, as the Washington Commanders visit the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 p.m. ET, CBS). The Thanksgiving Day festivities conclude with an NFC West divisional matchup as the 49ers travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks on NBC (8:20 p.m. ET).

Week 16 begins with Thursday Night Football on December 21, followed by two games on NBC and Peacock on Saturday, December 23. The slate continues on Sunday, December 24 with 10 games and concludes on Monday, December 25, with the second-ever Christmas tripleheader. The Christmas Day tripleheader features Las Vegas at Kansas City at 1:00 p.m. ET (CBS), the New York Giants at Philadelphia at 4:30 p.m. ET (FOX), and Baltimore at San Francisco at 8:15 p.m. ET (ABC).

The regular season will conclude with Week 18 on Saturday, January 6, and Sunday, January 7. For the 14th consecutive year, all 16 games scheduled for the final week of the season are division contests, enhancing the potential for more games with playoff ramifications.

The NFL’s 32 teams will each play 17 games over 18 weeks. Byes will begin in Week 6 and end in Week 14.

Additional 2023 schedule notes:

Twenty-three games will be Super Bowl rematches, including each of the past two Super Bowls: Philadelphia at Kansas City (Week 11, Super Bowl LVII) and the Los Angeles Rams at Cincinnati (Week 3, Super Bowl LVI).
Fourteen 2023 games are rematches from the 2022 playoffs, including Super Bowl LVII, both Championship Games (San Francisco at Philadelphia in Week 13; Cincinnati at Kansas City in Week 17), and all four Divisional playoff games (Kansas City at Jacksonville in Week 2; Buffalo at Cincinnati in Week 9, the New York Giants against Philadelphia in Weeks 16 and 18; Dallas at San Francisco in Week 5).
The two most recent winners of the Most Valuable Player award, Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers, are scheduled to face off for the first time in their careers when the Kansas City Chiefs visit the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football in Week 4 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). Should both players start, Mahomes (two-time MVP) and Rodgers (four-time MVP) would become the seventh different pair of quarterbacks to meet in a regular-season game after both players had won multiple NFL Most Valuable Player awards.
The top two picks in the 2023 NFL Draft, Bryce Young, and C.J. Stroud, are scheduled to meet in Week 8 when the Carolina Panthers host the Houston Texans (1:00 p.m. ET, FOX). Should both players start, it would mark the fifth game in NFL history between rookie starting quarterbacks selected with first and second overall picks in the NFL Draft.

The NFL will continue to use “flexible scheduling” this season to ensure exciting and meaningful games are available for viewing by the largest number of fans. Flexible scheduling will be expanded from prior seasons, including to late season weeks of Monday Night Football. For up-to-date information about “flexible scheduling” for the 2023 season, visit https://www.nfl.com/schedules/flexible-scheduling-procedures.

As in prior seasons, for Week 18, the final weekend of the season, the scheduling of the Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night games is not assigned. In Week 18, two games will be played on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET) with the remainder to be played on Sunday afternoon (1:00 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET) and one matchup to be played on Sunday night (8:20 p.m. ET). Specific dates, start times, and networks for Week 18 matchups will be determined and announced following the conclusion of Week 17.

Introduced in 2020 and continuing for a fourth-consecutive year, a total of 14 teams – seven each in the American and National Football Conferences – will make the postseason. The No. 1 seed in each conference will receive a bye in the Wild Card round. The remaining division champions in each conference with the best records will be seeded 2, 3, and 4, followed by the next three teams per conference with the best records seeded 5, 6, and 7.

Since 1990 – a streak of 33 consecutive seasons – at least four new teams have qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before, including seven of the 14 playoff teams in 2022.

AFC and NFC Wild Card games will feature the 2 seed hosting the 7 seed, the 3 seed hosting the 6 seed, and the 4 seed hosting the 5 seed.

Super Wild Card Weekend presented by Verizon for the 2023 season will feature six games, starting on Saturday, January 13.

Wild Card winners join the top seeds in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs, presented by Intuit TurboTax, on Saturday and Sunday, January 20-21. The AFC and NFC Championship Games, presented by Intuit TurboTax, will be played on Sunday, January 28. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 11, in Super Bowl LVIII at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium (CBS), marking the first time the league’s final game will be played in Las Vegas.

Westwood One will broadcast on the radio all NFL primetime games, the three Thanksgiving Day games, and the entire NFL playoffs. SiriusXM subscribers will have access to every live NFL game, as well as exclusive 24/7 talk channel coverage on SXM NFL Radio. All live and local prime-time games will be available to stream on mobile devices with NFL+.

For more information visit https://www.nfl.com/plus/learn-more.