The full NFL schedule release isn’t until Thursday, but we’ll get some spoilers Wednesday when the league announces the London and Germany games, the Black Friday game, and select others on Wednesday.
There’s also apparently one thing we already may know as of Tuesday, when former NFL schedule consultant Joe Ferreira joined Craig Hoffman: “it’s extremely likely” that we’ll see Commanders-Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day.
“If I look at the schedule, I think it’s extremely likely Washington plays on Thanksgiving again,” he said, basing his thought on the fact that Dallas will host an NFC team, and their home non-division schedule includes the Rams, Seahawks, and Lions – the latter of which hosts their own game on Turkey Day.
“The good thing about Thanksgiving in Dallas is that you can put any team there and it will do well, because it’s a captive audience, but you want it to be good,” Ferreira said. “The divisional games always do well, but the Giants played last year, and Philly-Dallas is too big for that – so if I was a betting man, I’d say there’s a good chance Washington will be playing at Dallas on Thanksgiving Day.”
Ferreira had, just before that, noted that the first-ever Black Friday game will “likely be a big game,” and that’s when Craig asked about a Commanders team under new ownership might get a primetime game Week 1 to showcase them.
“I don’t know if the ownership side is really as big a factor, it tends to be more player-focused or rivalry-focused,” Ferreira said. “It’s a piece of information the league will certainly consider, but not a big one.”
That bombshell aside, the other big news is that the NFL just cleared the schedule to be released on Monday, nearly missing its planned Thursday release. The schedule used to be released in early-April years ago, but is now done in mid-May – so, what takes so long to do the schedule, and why was it nearly delayed?
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“Back when I was doing it, we used peg boards to demarcate where games might fall in,” Ferreira said, “but now, with computers and algorithm, they can generate thousands of playable schedules, so then it becomes about what’s good for teams, for TV, and for travel, and then it ultimately goes to the Commissioner for approval.”
There are several rules the schedule has to follow in putting together 272 games, based on prior year’s standings, home/road splits, and the new 17th game split. From there, Ferreira said, there are questions about splitting divisional games, travel (especially in the era where teams usually get a bye after international games), and other things – but there’s one other big thing to consider that you may not think of: other events in host cities.
“There’s a Morgan Wallen concert a FedEx Field on Labor Day weekend; sometimes, events like that tear up the turf, and you have to consider if you want to play on that,” Ferreira said. “Or, in Las Vegas, there’s an F1 race the week before Thanksgiving that will take over the town, so do you really want to play an NFL game there? You may say yes because so many people will be in town, but think about the road team’s ability to get a hotel when there’s a massive event like that.”
Broadcast network affiliation is no longer a concern, as FOX and CBS are now no longer tied to the NFC and AFC, respectively, based on the road team. There may be leans based on owned & operated stations or teams that draw ratings, Ferreira said, but otherwise, “the rules are out the window” outside of a few, like teams not getting more than two short weeks (i.e. Sunday to Thursday, Monday to Sunday, etc.) and a restriction on primetime appearances.
Perhaps, then, it’s Cowboys-Commanders on CBS on Turkey Day?
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