NFL schedule takeaways: Chiefs own prime time and holidays

Even in the middle of May, when the NHL and NBA are deep into the playoffs and the MLB season is more than a month old, the NFL can still have its day. 

Schedule release day, to be exact. After slowly and strategically leaking select matchups this week, including the much-anticipated season kick-off between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, an extensive international and holiday slate, the NFL unveiled the 2025 regular-season schedule in its entirety on Wednesday night. 

There’s still about four months until the campaign actually opens up, but for now we can plan — and project, and predict, and imagine the possibilities — accordingly.

With all that in mind, here are some key takeaways from the NFL’s newly released schedule, plus a handful of games we’re already circling on the calendar. 

Teams get creative with release videos

Every year brings more and more creativity from teams as they put together their own custom videos to set the tone for the season. If you binge-watched Severance, check out Baltimore’s version. Minecraft fans shouldn’t miss the Chargers’ always-creative video. The Cardinals showcased a custom single performed by linebacker Mack Wilson, the Bengals parodied all the video-making hype (and mocked the Browns in the process), and the Vikings made things permanent with a series of creative (and real?) tattoos. 

Chiefs, Cowboys lead prime-time appearances

The schedule brings a heavy dose of the Kansas City Chiefs, with the club scheduled for a league-high seven prime-time slots and eight standalone games, including both Thanksgiving and Christmas contests. The first eight weeks of the NFL schedule feature five prime-time Chiefs games. 

The Cowboys have one less conventional prime-time matchup than the Chiefs, but will play eight standalone games as well. 

The Washington Commanders are among a group of teams with the third-most primetime matchups, signifying a major jump in expectations and audience. Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo, the Chargers, and San Francisco will all appear on the prime-time stage five times. 

Three teams — Cleveland, New Orleans, and Tennessee — won’t see any prime-time slots this year. 

Chiefs have a hold on the holidays

Considering their prime-time prominence, it’s no surprise NFL schedule-makers are lining up the Chiefs and Cowboys for a Thanksgiving Day ratings bonanza. 

The NFL has already long owned U.S. Thanksgiving as far as appointment sports viewing goes, and after last year’s Christmas Day takeover yielded huge viewership with a double-header streamed live on Netflix for the first time, the league clearly has no interest in giving the NBA its flagship holiday back. 

This year brings a triple-header on Christmas Day, once again featuring Kansas City — they’ll take the Denver Broncos in what could be, at that point late in the season, a divisional head-to-head with plenty of playoff implications.

Vikings grab overseas spotlight as NFL expands international showings

The NFL is once again taking the game abroad, expanding its international schedule to seven games this year, involving 13 teams and five different countries — including two nations that have never before hosted an NFL game: Ireland and Spain. 

The Minnesota Vikings headline the list of teams travelling abroad, and are making the most of their travels with a unique approach by playing back-to-back weeks across the pond. After taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin’s first-ever NFL matchup in Week 4, they’ll have a short commute over to London to take on the Cleveland Browns. It’s a smart strategy for the Vikings, who don’t give up a home game by going abroad — they’re the visiting team in both matchups — and unlike the Browns in Week 5, won’t have to deal with being jet-lagged. 

Giants, Browns, Lions face the toughest slate in 2025

The New York Giants and Cleveland Browns combined for just six wins in 2024, and according to early projections, both clubs are in for a tough 2025, too. Earlier this week, Sharp Football Analysis used projected win totals (based on Vegas oddsmakers’ predictions) to calculate strength of schedule for all 32 teams. Here are the top five teams in terms of toughest strength of schedule, per Sharp Football Analysis:

1. New York Giants
2. Cleveland Browns
3. Detroit Lions
4. Philadelphia Eagles
5. Minnesota Vikings 

49ers, Patriots, Saints have easiest strength of schedule

Meanwhile, according to that same list published by Sharp Football Analysis, these five teams have the easiest strength of schedule in 2025: 

1. San Francisco 49ers
2. New England Patriots
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Atlanta Falcons
5. Buffalo Bills

Of these five teams, only the Bills were playoff-bound in 2024. The rest could really use a favour from the football gods. 

Chargers to log major travel time, Bengals keeping it local

According to Bill Speros of bookies.com, the Chargers will travel a league-high 37,086 miles over the course of the 2025 regular season. That includes a trip to Brazil for their season-opener against the Chiefs — a game in which the Chargers are listed as the home team — and six trips cross-country to play teams in the Eastern Time Zone. The Rams are in similar territory, with a flight across the pond to play in London and six road games in the East. The Seahawks don’t have an international game, but do face longer travel times in general from the Pacific Northwest to a slate of southeast destinations. 

At the other end of the travel spectrum, the Cincinnati Bengals are keeping things local as they’re set to travel just 8,753 miles in 2025. They’ve got just three games outside of the Eastern Time Zone, with a trip to Denver for Monday Night Football in Week 4 as their longest journey. 

9 GAMES WE’RE CIRCLING ON THE CALENDAR

Ravens @ Bills | Week 1 (SNF)

Sunday, Sept. 7 @ 8:20 p.m. ET

You’ve got to hand it to the NFL schedule-makers. They know how to give the people what they want. And what we want is more football between the Bills and Ravens, almost as though we’re picking up where we left off in the AFC’s Divisional Round. That loss still hurts for Baltimore, and while a win in Orchard Park wouldn’t heal any wounds, it’s certainly a great way to kick off a season that holds grand expectations for both AFC squads with Super Bowl aspirations. 

Eagles @ Chiefs | Week 2

Sunday, Sept. 14 @ 4:25 p.m. ET

The defending Super Bowl champs will be tested early and often, and the league isn’t making us wait much for the rematch we all want to see. After kicking off the season against the division-rival Dallas Cowboys, Philly visits Kansas City for a Super Bowl LIX rematch.

Interestingly, Week 3 brings another familiar foe from the Eagles’ playoff run, as they’ll host the Rams — the team they defeated in the Divisional Round back in January. 

Bears @ Lions | Week 2

Sunday, Sept. 14 @ 1 p.m. ET

Lions head coach Dan Campbell watched both his coordinators get hired away by other clubs, and while defensive mastermind Aaron Glenn jetted off to New York and outside the confines of the NFC North, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson stayed close enough to visit twice a year as head coach of the Chicago Bears. 

Can he get the Bears rolling early? A win against his old club and the NFC North frontrunner would go a long way in learning what this Chicago squad is all about — and whether this is the year the Bears can jump into contention, at last. 

Chargers @ Raiders | Week 2 

Monday, Sept. 15 @ 10 p.m. ET

Okay, we’re admittedly a little heavy on the Week 2 hype, but can you blame us? It’s a great slate, a Raiders-Chargers Monday-nighter sounds like the perfect way to cap it off. 

While both squads bring plenty of intrigue to the 2025 campaign after interesting off-season moves, the matchup we’re most excited about between these AFC West foes takes place on the sidelines as longtime coaching rivals Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll will once again be going head-to-head on the regular. 

The Harbaugh-Carroll rivalry dates back to 2007 when both were at the helm of Pac-12 programs (Harbaugh at Stanford, Carroll at USC) before both wound up in the NFC West (Harbaugh in San Francisco, Carroll in Seattle). Now, after Harbaugh was hired by the Chargers last off-season and Carroll took the Raiders job earlier this year, they’re back in the same division ready to do battle. Both coaches bring plenty of energy to their respective sidelines, and we can expect lots of fodder at the media podiums, too. The AFC West is going to be extra fun this year. 

Bengals @ Broncos | Week 4 

Monday, Sept. 29 @ 8:15 p.m. ET

The NFL’s top offence against one of the league’s top defences, in prime time? We’ll take that. Just one win separated the playoff-bound Broncos from the Bengals last season, which means that even though this head-to-head is happening early in the campaign, the outcome could come into play down the stretch. 

September is typically not a great month to be a Bengal — the clubs is known for its slow starts, which have come back to haunt them later on. Can the Bengals shake that trend in time for both teams’ first prime-time showing?

Patriots @ Titans | Week 7

Sunday, Oct. 19, 1 p.m. ET

In a sea of 1 p.m. ET games for both sides is an intriguing matchup between two rebuilding clubs as Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel is set to face his old squad in Tennessee. What early connections might we see between how Vrabel approached team-building in Tennessee and how the Patriots are developing under his guidance in Year 1? How will he be received by the Titans’ home crowd and his former players? And can we all agree that we’re calling this matchup the Vra-Bowl?

Chiefs @ Bills | Week 9

Sunday, Nov. 2 @ 4:25 p.m. ET

The best rivalry going gets another instalment. While we all know the Chiefs have the upper hand in the playoffs — Patrick Mahomes is 4-0 against Josh Allen in the post-season, including back-to-back heartbreakers for the Bills in 2023 and 2024 — the Bills tend to best their AFC foes in the regular season. Allen has won four straight regular-season meetings against the Chiefs, all of which have been highly entertaining affairs. Regardless of how this mid-season head-to-head unfolds, it’s safe to say we’ll all be studying it plenty should the two sides once again find themselves on a collision course in the post-season. 

Packers-Bears | Week 14

Sunday, Dec. 7 @ 1 p.m. ET

One of the oldest rivalries in the game, this one’s been decidedly lopsided for a while now in favour of Green Bay. But can these Bears be different? We should know the answer to that by the time they take on the Packers for the first time in 2025. If rookie head coach Ben Johnson can have his team in playoff position down the stretch, we’ll have a much-needed edition of this rivalry that’s about more than just pride. When both the Bears and Packers are good, the league is better. 

Eagles @ Commanders | Week 16

Saturday, Dec. 20 @ time TBD

The NFL schedule-makers are betting on Washington to follow up a sensational 2024 breakout season with a second act worthy of the marquee billing they’re getting in 2025, and they’re clearly banking on the Commanders to be in position to sprint down the stretch and challenge Philadelphia atop the NFC East, too. 

We have to wait until December before these division rivals square off for the first time in what’s expected to be a game packed with playoff implications. It could have a playoff feel, too, considering they’ll meet again two weeks later in Week 18.

More from Sportsnet

NFL releases full 2025 regular-season schedule

2025 NFL schedule release highlights: Social media continues to shine