Get ready to watch plenty of the Commanders in 2025.
After quarterback Jayden Daniels’ sensational rookie season that culminated in a deep postseason run, Washington is scheduled for a whopping eight standalone games in the coming season.
While the Commanders will start the season with a 1 p.m. Sunday home matchup against the Giants, they’ll have their first primetime game in Week 2 when they travel to Green Bay to play the Packers on Thursday night.
Washington will be heavily featured from Week 5 through Week 11, as the club will play the Chargers in Southern California for a 4:25 p.m. start time on FOX. Then in Week 6, Daniels will have his second matchup against 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams on Monday Night Football.
In Week 7, the Commanders will host the Cowboys for another 4:25 p.m. start on FOX. Then it’s two primetime games in a row, with a Week 8 Monday night game at Kansas City followed by a Week 9 matchup on Sunday Night Football against the Seahawks.
The Lions come to town for a rematch of the divisional round in Week 10, slated for 4:25 on FOX. Then the Commanders go international, facing the Dolphins in Madrid for 9:30 a.m. start.
After a Week 12 bye, the Commanders will face the Broncos on Sunday Night Football for another primetime matchup.
The franchise will have a pair of 1 p.m. Sunday starts for road games against the Vikings and Giants before a special standalone Saturday matchup against the Eagles in Week 16.
Finally, the Week 17, Christmas Day game against the Cowboys is scheduled for a standalone slot at 1 p.m.
That makes eight standalone games with three more late-afternoon featured time slots for Washington’s 2025 schedule.
ESPN has five doubleheaders on its 2025 slate, including bringing back two of the traditional 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET doubleheaders.
In Week 2, the Bucs play at the Texans at 7 p.m. ET followed by the Chargers at the Raiders at 10 p.m. ET. In Week 7, the Bucs travel to the Lions for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff with the Texans at the Seahawks following at 10 p.m. ET.
The NFL released the schedule on Wednesday night, and the Monday Night Football schedule features several teams who each have two appearances.
Here is the entire Monday Night Football schedule:
Sept. 8 Vikings at Bears, 8:15 p.m. ET
Sept. 15 Bucs at Texans, 7 p.m. ET and Chargers at Raiders, 10 p.m. ET
Sept. 22 Lions at Ravens, 8:15 p.m. ET
Sept. 29 Jets at Dolphins, 7:15 p.m. ET and Bengals at Broncos, 8:15 p.m. ET
Oct. 6 Chiefs at Jaguars, 8:15 p.m. ET
Oct. 13 Bills at Falcons, 7:15 p.m. ET and Bears at Commanders, 8:15 p.m. ET
Oct. 20 Bucs at Lions, 7 p.m. ET and Texans at Seahawks, 10 p.m. ET
Oct. 27 Commanders at Chiefs, 8:15 p.m. ET
Nov. 3 Cardinals at Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. ET
Nov. 10 Eagles at Packers, 8:15 p.m. ET
Nov. 17 Cowboys at Raiders, 8:15 p.m. ET
Nov. 24 Panthers at 49ers, 8:15 p.m. ET
Dec. 1 Giants at Patriots, 8:15 p.m. ET
Dec. 8 Eagles at Chargers, 8:15 p.m. ET
Dec. 15 Dolphins at Steelers, 8:15 p.m. ET
Dec. 22 49ers at Colts, 8:15 p.m. ET
Dec. 29 Rams at Falcons, 8:15 p.m. ET
Jan. 3 TBD doubleheader, 4:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET
Thursday Night Football will begin its fourth season on Prime Video with a matchup between the Commanders and Packers in Week 2.
Both teams reached the postseason in 2024 and feature exciting young quarterbacks in Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Green Bay’s Jordan Love.
The Dolphins, Bills, Seahawks, Rams, and Broncos will each have a pair of Thursday night games on Prime Video. While the Eagles also will be featured on Prime Video twice, one of those games will be on Black Friday against the Bears.
Prime Video’s final regular season game will be the Christmas Night matchup between the Chiefs and Broncos, with Dec. 25 falling on a Thursday in 2025.
Prime Video will also host an exclusive Wild Card round postseason matchup on Jan. 10 or Jan. 11 to round out its slate.
The full Prime Video Thursday Night Football schedule for the 2025 season is:
Week 2: Commanders at Packers
Week 3: Dolphins at Bills
Week 4: Seahawks at Cardinals
Week 5: 49ers at Rams
Week 6: Eagles at Giants
Week 7: Steelers at Bengals
Week 8: Vikings at Chargers
Week 9: Ravens at Dolphins
Week 10: Raiders at Broncos
Week 11: Jets at Patriots
Week 12: Bills at Texans
Week 13 (Black Friday): Bears at Eagles
Week 14: Cowboys at Lions
Week 15: Falcons at Buccaneers
Week 16: Rams at Seahawks
Week 17 (Christmas night): Broncos at Chiefs
The last two NFL MVPs will square off on the first Sunday night of the 2025 season.
2023 MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens will pay a visit to Buffalo to take on 2024 MVP Josh Allen and the Bills. That game and the other 17 Sunday night matchups will be broadcast on NBC, although we’ll have to wait until the end of Week 17 to know who will be involved in the final game of the year.
The Bills beat the Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs last year and both teams have designs on supplanting the Chiefs as the top team in the AFC this season.
Flex scheduling rules could change the schedule during the season. It may be used up to twice between Weeks 5-10 of the regular season and at the league’s discretion from Weeks 11-17.
The initial schedule for Sunday Night Football during the 2025 season appears below:
Week 1 - Ravens at Bills.
Week 2 - Falcons at Vikings.
Week 3 - Chiefs at Giants.
Week 4 - Packers at Cowboys.
Week 5 - Patriots at Bills.
Week 6 - Lions at Chiefs.
Week 7 - Falcons at 49ers.
Week 8 - Packers at Steelers.
Week 9 - Seahawks at Commanders.
Week 10 - Steelers at Chargers.
Week 11 - Lions at Eagles.
Week 12 - Buccaneers at Rams.
Week 13 - Broncos at Commanders.
Week 14 - Texans at Chiefs.
Week 15 - Vikings at Cowboys.
Week 16 - Bengals at Dolphins.
Week 17 - Bears at 49ers.
Week 18 - TBD.
NFL fans won’t have to wait long to see the Super Bowl LIX rematch.
The Eagles-Chiefs game has been put on the Week Two schedule, for a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday, September 14, on Fox.
The game will be played in Kansas City, where the home fans will hope to see the Chiefs get a measure of revenge for the 40-22 drubbing the Eagles handed them in February.
Both the Eagles and Chiefs will get extra-long work weeks to prepare for the game because they play the first two games of the season in Week One. The Eagles play in the NFL’s traditional Thursday night opener and will have three extra days of rest. The Chiefs play in the Week One Friday night game in Brazil and will have an extra two days of rest before Week Two.
What was reported about the Chargers’ Week 1 opponent is now official.
Just before the full schedule was slated to be released on Wednesday night, the league announced Kansas City will be in São Paulo, Brazil on Sept. 5 to take on Los Angeles in the season opener for both teams.
FrontOfficeSports.com first reported that the Chiefs would be the Chargers’ opponent in Brazil late last week.
Via Matt McMullan of the Chiefs website, Kansas City will become the first team in league history to have play a game in four different countries outside of the United States. The franchise will also become the first club to play a regular-season game in three countries outside of North America.
The game will be streamed for free on YouTube.
The rest of the 2025 schedule will be released at 5 p.m. ET.
For the third straight season, Aaron Rodgers will be starting the season in a game involving the Jets.
If he signs with the Steelers. And if the report that is circulating regarding the Week 1 schedule is accurate.
Matt O’Leary of the Just Jets podcast reports that the Jets will open the 2025 season by hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers. If accurate, it means Rodgers will be back in New Jersey, right out of the gates.
First, Rodgers has to sign with the Steelers. It’s widely believed that he will.
Colin Cowherd recently suggested that Rodgers is waiting to see the schedule before making a final decision. If that’s accurate, would it make him more likely or less likely to pick Pittsburgh?
Again, if the report is accurate, it’s a very juicy option for Week 1. Too juicy, it seems, to be tucked into the full slate of early games.
Even without Rodgers on the Steelers, former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields will likely be starting for the Jets.
If Rodgers joins the Steelers, he’ll also see the Packers (in Pittsburgh) and the Vikings (in Ireland) in 2025. And he’ll get a chance to return to Chicago, where he can once again remind Bears fans that he still owns them.
It all becomes official at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. If Rodgers hopes to upstage the schedule release, he can announce his intention to join the Steelers 15 minutes or so before the full slate of 272 games is announced.
For the various captive audience games to be played in each NFL season, the league has a decision to make: Use a so-so game that will generate much higher ratings than it would on a normal Sunday, or peel off a game that would otherwise be destined for prime time and generate massive numbers.
This year, the NFL opted to go very big for the late-afternoon Thanksgiving game.
Chiefs at Cowboys will move the needle until it uncontrollably vibrates and shatters. It’ll generate the biggest audience for any regular-season game in league history.
The current record was set on Thanksgiving Day in 2022, when 42.1 million watched the Cowboys beat the Giants, 28-20. That game bested the epic Monday night game from 1990 between the 10-1 Giants and 10-1 49ers, which attracted 41.5 million. (The 49ers won, 7-3.)
Seven of the top nine games happened on Thanksgiving. The other one happened in 1985, when the Dolphins handed the Bears their only loss of the season on a Monday night in December.
The Chiefs are currently the top draw in all of American sports. The Cowboys are still clinging to the “America’s Team” moniker, even if they haven’t played in an NFC Championship in 30 years.
It’s the perfect spot for a game between the two NFL teams that draw the most interest. In most households, the food has been eaten. The Tryptophan is sinking in. The television provides a much-needed respite from the awkward conversation.
Anything under 45 million will be a disappointment. Fifty million isn’t out of the question.
Whatever the final number may be, it’s safe to say it will be the biggest regular-season audience the league has ever attracted.
It’s a tradition truly unlike any other.
With the official schedule release coming tonight, and with the league and its broadcast partners selectively announcing some of the games, there will be leaks as to the others. From various reporters. All day long.
The league won’t like it. They’ll try to get the networks that televise games to tell their reporters to not do it. Some will do it anyway.
It’s no different than tipping first-round draft picks. The information is out there. It’s easily obtained. It’s even more easily disseminated, thanks to instant access to social media.
Getting the draft picks is easy. All teams know the backlog of selections that are waiting to be officially announced. All it takes is one person with one team, and the keys to the kingdom have been secured.
When it comes to the schedule, the information is even more widely available. The team-by-team schedule-release videos aren’t suddenly generated between 8:00 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. ET on the day the schedule is released.
Many within the wall of each organization know the configuration of games. Football operations. Ticketing. In-house media. Social media. By now, the schedule is everywhere.
As a result, the leaks are inevitable. And even though the NFL will prefer that folks tune in to NFL Network and/or NFL.com later today to get the information, much of it will already be out there before the curtain officially falls.
The Chiefs and Cowboys are set for a Thanksgiving showdown.
Kansas City will be the road team for the Turkey Day game in Dallas, the NFL announced today. Kickoff will be at 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
The Cowboys’ annual Thanksgiving game is often the most-watched regular-season game of the NFL season, and with the high-profile opponents from Kansas City coming to town there’s a good chance it will be this year as well.
Since Patrick Mahomes became their starting quarterback in 2018, the Chiefs have consistently been one of the best teams in the NFL, and that makes them an attractive choice for the NFL to schedule in high-profile games. The Chiefs will also play on Christmas for the second consecutive year, they will reportedly play in the prime time Friday night game in Brazil in Week One, and there are big games still to announce with the Chiefs having a Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles and an AFC Championship Game rematch against the Bills.
The Cowboys are always a big draw as well, despite their long Super Bowl drought, and the NFL is putting them in high-profile games from the start by scheduling them as the visitors in the traditional Thursday night opener at Philadelphia.
The full 2025 NFL schedule will be released on Wednesday night.
