The 2023 NFL schedule has finally been released to the public, which means the league office gets to hear from 32 different fan bases about how their team got screwed and their rival is the favorite of the league.
It happens every year, and the league has to balance when stadiums are available versus travel issues combined with competitive inequities and the needs of various broadcast partners. There are more variables than ever: no longer does the road team decide whether a game is broadcast on CBS or FOX on Sunday afternoons, and for the first time ever teams can play multiple short-week games.
Thursday afternoon ahead of the official release, I spoke with Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning. He and a team of great people — and hundreds of thousands of computer simulations — finally landed on the schedule Monday afternoon and got the approval from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
We hit a number of topics, and I've included his responses below.
On the season-opener between the Lions and Chiefs, when it could have been an opponent like the Bengals, Bills, Eagles or an AFC West foe for Kickoff Weekend.North: "The truth of the matter is, you, me and nine friends could probably line up against Kansas City on (season) kickoff (day) and fans are still going to want to watch. Patrick Mahomes has become must-see TV and the last time we saw him he was winning arguably the best Super Bowl that we've ever played. Whatever home opponent we gave to Kansas City for kickoff was going to be a great story. And the honest truth is we considered every single one of them. …We always talk about teams playing their way into national windows and I think we can safely say the Detroit Lions have done that."
The league placed the Packers in plenty of national, standalone windows. The Packers are nearly maxed out in primetime games despite uncertainty on how well Jordan Love can play quarterback. On dealing with a national brand like the Packers with an uncertain future.North: "They are a national brand. They have a national following. They're going to be well represented on our national television schedule. They are on the NBC schedule twice, ESPN twice, Amazon, Thanksgiving. This sure looks like a schedule where the National Football League is expecting the Green Bay Packers to be relevant and competitive. To the extent that any of us know anything, that organization seems to have a pretty good track record of having quarterbacks maybe sit for a couple of years and learn from a future Hall of Famer and be competitive really year over year."
On how the league decided to deal with the New York Jets, who are maxed out with six primetime games this season (two Sunday Night Football, two Monday Night Football and two Amazon Prime games including the Black Friday game against Miami).North: "The Jets have a fantastic schedule. Any AFC East game is going to be relevant. They play Kansas City and Philadelphia. They have a great schedule, so the Jets were going to be in national television windows anyway. The fact that they signed a future Hall of Famer, four-time MVP [Aaron Rodgers] and, again, you know the fans are going to be interested. To take all those really good Jets games whether it's Buffalo, Kansas City, Philadelphia, the Chargers and put them in Sunday afternoon windows where, if this guy can play still and is healthy and they're healthy, fans are going to miss those games because you may only get it distributed to 15-20 percent of the country on a Sunday afternoon."
The rematches of both conference title games from last year take place later in the season. The 49ers travel to Philadelphia in Week 13 while the Bengals go to Kansas City on New Year's Eve in Week 17.North: "None of us know who's going to be relevant and who's going to be playing for what in December but as you sit here today you've got to figure a game like Cincinnati-Kansas City is going to have playoff implications in Week 17. Knowing that we were going to play in a national window somewhere, you could get value out of it in Game No. 1. And we ended up playing it on New Year's Eve. It's a guess, these are all predictions. It's hard to envision a world where the Bengals and Chiefs aren't playing for something in Week 17."
The Cardinals and the Texans are the only two teams that are not scheduled to be playing when no one else is — be it a primetime game or a nationally televised game.North: "But that's what flexible scheduling is for. If either of those guys are frisky and relevant late in the year we'd love to find a window where we can reintroduce them to the nation."
The NFL dominated the ratings last Christmas with its tripleheader, averaging 22.9 million viewers across the three games. This year it'll be Raiders-Chiefs, followed by Giants-Eagles and capped with Ravens-49ers.North: "Raiders and Chiefs, that just sounds like a football game, it sounds like Christmas. Maybe we can get a little weather in Kansas City, get some snow. A few hours later in Philadelphia, same thing. Santa Claus going back to Philly, I'm sure he can't wait for the Giants-Eagles game. And once Lamar Jackson re-signed with the Ravens I think we felt even better about putting the Ravens in national television windows and so you get a game like Ravens-49ers to backstop a tripleheader."
With such incredible Christmas Day success, perhaps the league is considering a Christmas Day game in 2024 that would fall on a Tuesday?North: "I would not expect an NFL game to be played on Tuesday on Christmas in the 2024 season but hey, never say never."
More notes on the 2023 NFL schedule The league considered putting the Jets-Giants matchup in Week 1 that falls on Sept. 11. Instead, it opted to play the Giants at home on Sept. 10 and debut Aaron Rodgers at MetLife on the following night against the Bills. So those two teams still play on or around Sept. 11. It was going to be odd — but not unheard of — to have them face each other in the final week of the preseason and then in the first game of the season. Eight teams will wind up playing on multiple short weeks this year. The Bears, Steelers, Jets and Saints are all on Amazon Prime twice this season, meaning they get Thursday games. Multiple Thursday games aren't unheard of in the league, but
