Each of the NFL’s five main TV partners will have a nationally televised game in the preseason, and today the NFL announced the schedule for those games.
The 2025 NFL preseason kicks off on NBC with the Hall of Fame Game, with the Chargers facing the Lions in Canton, Ohio, at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 31.
Two nationally televised games will take place in Week Two of the preseason: The Bills will be in Chicago to face the Bears on Sunday, August 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. And the Bengals will be in Washington to face the Commanders on Monday, August 18 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
And two more nationally televised games will take place in Week Three of the preseason: The Patriots will play at the Giants on Thursday, August 21 at 8 p.m. ET on Prime Video, and the Vikings will play at the Titans on Friday, August 22 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
When the 2025 NFL schedule came out, Bears coach Ben Johnson found out that his team gets its bye in Week Five, the earliest bye week this year. And Johnson is pleased about that.
Johnson said on The Herd that assessing his team for a month and then getting a week for the coaches to evaluate what they need to work on should be ideal for a first-year staff.
“I actually like where that bye week is, because it usually takes about four weeks into the season to find out who you are as a team, what you do well, what you don’t do well, and that’s a good time so we can reflect on that as a coaching staff so we can hone in on what we want to be for the remaining three-quarters of the season,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he knows it will take time for his team, with a new head coach, new assistants and a lot of new players, to be on the same page.
“It can take up to half the season before they really start to mesh and come together,” Johnson said.
Some coaches prefer a later bye week because they like to give their players some extra rest heading into a playoff run. But Johnson thinks the extra time off early in the season gives the Bears a better chance of being in the playoff hunt at the end of the season.
The Cowboys will become the first team in NFL history to play four Thursday games in a single-season. They also will become the first team in NFL history to play six consecutive games against teams that won at least 11 games the previous season, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Cowboys face a gauntlet in Weeks 12-17, with their six opponents those weeks having made the playoffs in 2024. The Eagles (14-3), Chiefs (15-2), Lions (15-2), Vikings (14-3), Chargers (11-6) and Commanders (12-5) went a combined 81-21.
The only good news is four of the games are at home, with the only road games to Detroit and Washington.
“We’ve got a spicy schedule at the end when you you compare it to last year’s playoff teams,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Thursday, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “We have a big run there playing a lot of playoff teams. We look forward to that and Schotty [coach Brian Schottenheimer] is fired up about the schedule, and we’re ready to go.”
The Commanders will play some well-rested opponents this season.
The NFL schedule makers gave Washington four games against teams coming off their bye weeks, which is the most of any team in the NFL this season.
The Commanders will see the Bears in Week Six, Seahawks in Week Nine, Broncos in Week 13, and Giants in Week 15, all coming off their byes. The Commanders’ bye is in Week 12 at the same time as the Broncos, so Washington does not get to play a less-rested team after its own bye week.
According to Seth Walder of ESPN, only 10 teams since 2002 have had to play four different opponents coming off their byes.
The good news for the Commanders is that bye weeks have become less important in recent years, and last year teams coming off their byes actually had a losing record. So the extra rest may not help the Commanders’ opponents all that much.
When the NFL schedule is released, the league inherently tells us what it thinks about how well a team may do in the coming year based on how many times it gets featured in a primetime window.
While each team used to play at least once on Thursday night, that’s no longer the case.
For 2025, the Titans, Saints, and Browns each do not have a primetime game.
Of those three teams, only Cleveland will play in a standalone window. The Browns will take on the Vikings in London in Week 5 at 9:30 a.m. ET on NFL Network.
Otherwise, Cleveland has just two games that do not start at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday — a Week 11 home game against the Ravens (4:25 p.m. on CBS) and Week 12’s visit to Las Vegas (4:05 p.m. on CBS).
Tennessee plays all games on Sunday, with five games starting in the late-afternoon window. Of those, just one is in the Eastern or Central time zone, the club’s Week 8 visit to Indianapolis.
The Saints have six games starting in the late-afternoon window, with two of them visits to Seattle and Los Angeles.
With flexible scheduling, any of these three teams could play their way into a primetime slot later in the season.
With the NFL’s full 2025 schedule release on Wednesday, we now know where this year’s No. 1 overall pick will begin his pro career.
Quarterback Cam Ward and the Titans will play the Broncos on the road in Week 1 with a 4:05 p.m. ET start time on FOX.
Ward’s first home game will come the following week against the Rams at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS, which means Tennessee’s first two 2025 opponents were in the postseason last year.
The Titans are not scheduled for any standalone games in 2025, though they do have two games currently in featured windows. In Week 8, Tennessee’s road matchup with Indianapolis is slated for 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS. Then in Week 15, the Titans’ road matchup with the 49ers is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET on FOX.
Additionally, Tennessee’s Aug. 22 preseason matchup with Minnesota will be broadcast nationally on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.
The 2025 season will mark the Bills’ final year at the current Highmark Stadium before they move across the street to their new home field next year.
Buffalo will begin and end the commemorative season at home, beginning with the 2024 postseason rematch against the Ravens.
While there is almost always a risk of snow in Buffalo, the Bills will have three of their last five games at home — including each of the last two. Cincinnati will come to town for Week 14 on Dec. 7. Then Philadelphia visits in Week 17 on Dec. 28 and the Jets will be in town for the last regular-season game at the current Highmark Stadium in Week 18.
Buffalo has been one of the league’s top teams throughout the 2020s, winning five consecutive AFC East titles. But the Bills are slated for just five standalone games in 2025.
The first will come in Week 1 against the Ravens. The Bills will host the Dolphins in Week 3 on Thursday night and the Patriots in Week 5 on Sunday night. Then in Week 6, the Bills will be in Atlanta to face the Falcons on Monday night.
But after that, Buffalo’s lone remaining primetime game is in Week 12 when the club visits Houston for a Thursday night matchup. The Bills do have games scheduled at 4:25 p.m. on Sundays against the Chiefs (Week 9), the Steelers (Week 13), the Bengals (Week 14), and the Eagles (Week 17).
The Cowboys have played back-to-back Thursday games several times in team history, following their Thanksgiving Day game with Thursday Night Football the following week.
They do that again this season and also have two other Thursday games, becoming the first team in NFL history with four Thursday games in a single season.
The Cowboys open the season on Thursday, Sept. 4 at Philadelphia against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles.
They host the Chiefs in their annual Thanksgiving Day game on Thursday, Nov. 27, and follow that the next week with a trip to the Lions for Thursday Night Football on Dec. 4.
Dallas also plays on Christmas Day, a Thursday, at the Commanders.
The Chiefs and Cowboys are ratings draws. That’s why they play on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day this season.
It also is why they both have so many standalone games.
The Chiefs will play eight standalone games, including seven primetime games. Five of their primetime games come in the first eight weeks.
The Cowboys also have eight standalone games, including six primetime games.
The teams play each other on Thanksgiving Day at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in Patrick Mahomes’ first NFL game where he makes his offseason home. On Christmas Day, the Chiefs host the Broncos, and the Cowboys travel to the Commanders.
The Dolphins, Falcons, Lions, Eagles, Commanders, Bills, Chargers and 49ers each have five primetime games.
The Ravens, Bengals, Steelers, Texans, Broncos, Packers, Vikings, Bucs, Rams and Seahawks each got four.
The Giants, Raiders, Patriots and Bears will be on primetime three times each.
The Jets and Cardinals have two primetime appearances each, and the Colts, Jaguars and Panthers each received one primetime game.
The Browns, Saints and Titans are not scheduled to play in primetime.
The 2025 NFL schedule was released in full on Wednesday night, and here’s a look at some of the biggest games of the season.
2025 NFL opener: The Eagles and Cowboys will kick off the season on Thursday, September 4, in Philadelphia, with kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Christmas tripleheader: The NFL will play three games on Christmas, with kickoffs at 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. The Cowboys will visit the Commanders in the early game and the Lions will be in Minnesota for the second game, both on Netflix. The night game will be in Kansas City, with the Broncos playing the Chiefs on Amazon Prime Video.
Super Bowl rematch: The Chiefs will host the Eagles in Kansas City in a Super Bowl LIX rematch in Week Two.
NFC Championship Game rematch: The Eagles and Commanders will face off twice in the last three weeks of the 2025 regular season. One of those games will be on Saturday afternoon in Week 16 in Washington, and the other will be in Week 18 in Philadelphia. Kickoff time for that one is TBA.
AFC Championship Game rematch: Chiefs-Bills has become one of the NFL’s best rivalries, and this year is likely to be no exception. They’ll meet in Buffalo in Week Nine on Sunday, November 2 at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS.
Thanksgiving and Black Friday: Kansas City at Dallas on Thanksgiving afternoon may be the most-watched game of the season. Detroit will also host Thanksgiving as part of their annual tradition, with the Packers coming to town. And in prime time, the Bengals will visit the Ravens on NBC and Peacock. The Eagles will host the Bears on Black Friday.
International games: The Chargers will be the designated home team against the Chiefs in Sao Paulo on Friday night in Week One, in a game that will stream for free on YouTube.
The following six games will be played in Europe, all kicking off at 9:30 a.m. ET:
September 28: Vikings at Steelers in Croke Park in Dublin.
October 5: Vikings at Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
October 12: Broncos at Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
October 19: Rams at Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London.
November 9: Falcons at Colts at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
November 16: Commanders at Dolphins at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
