Welcome to my yearly review of the teams that got hosed by the NFL schedule. The list of potential teams grows larger by the year, as the league continues to aggressively capitulate to the sea of network billionaires who line pockets and pay for both salaries and superyachts. The timing of this is especially rich, as clubs across the NFL have started warning paying customers of reselling tickets to opposing fans. Until the loyalty extends both ways, why should fans care? Owners are lopping off home games in favor of international travel or selling out to a system that, for some teams, places almost all games into a late-night window that can’t be attended by kids who have to go to school in the morning (nevermind working parents). Before we get into the crux of it, a few thoughts on what I noticed this year and about the schedule generally:
• I wrote it a year ago, but I think shipping a game to South America on opening weekend is abhorrent. The Brazil game last year necessitated an alteration of footwear in order for players to properly dig into the turf. One team had to stay a healthy distance away from the stadium. Just imagine the outcry of one of the league’s biggest fan bases if a premier player is lost for the season, depriving season ticket holders from seeing their favorite player in person once this year. I know this may sound a little ridiculous, but until other countries’ premier sports leagues are desperate enough about their own product’s growth to ship premium, peak-season games to American soil, we should stop appearing so thirsty (I think I’d like a stage of the Tour de France right here in Morris County, N.J.).
This year, we also have a Minnesota Vikings team playing two consecutive weeks in Europe between two countries (Ireland and England). Try as any of these places might, it’s impossible to replicate the comfort of routine. The specificity of the facility. The familiarity of one’s own bed (and circadian rhythm). We’re not Major League Baseball during the Babe Ruth era. We do not need to barnstorm so people can find out about this swingin’ game with helmets and a leather pig blatter! Opening weekend is a borderline religious experience; a communal holiday at a time when our country could truly use it.
• I think having the New York Jets start the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers is classless. The entire saga last year involving Aaron Rodgers and the Jets was such a poor advertisement for the sport of football and how impatience and hubris can completely derail a billion-dollar organization. With so many great actual matchups possible, why cloud the start of the football season with Har Har Remember Jetz? Lol. This is a new team. New coach. New GM. Woody Johnson has been embarrassed and retreated from the spotlight. It’s over.
Last year, I went so far as to say that I wouldn’t take the field if I were coach Robert Saleh given the (also classless) scheduling quirk of having Rodgers begin the season against the guy who tore his Achilles the year before. This year, I think the Jets should simply realize what the rest of the league thinks of them: They are Kramer (before Michael Richards’s stand-up career, to be clear), just a little bit of silliness to punch up an otherwise drab situation.
• Did the Rodgers gambit work? The Pro Football Talk theory that Rodgers waited until the schedule was formulated to make his “decision” to play for Pittsburgh—after the Jets were placed on a total prime-time nightmare cruise last season—is a valid one. Pittsburgh is only in a smattering of stand-alone games: five by my count. This could either be due to Rodgers uncertainty or the fact that a Rodgers brand of football isn’t really all that aesthetically pleasing anymore.
• I think the league is going to regret having just three Drake Maye prime-time games this year, as opposed to six (so far) stand-alone Michael Penix Jr. games and five Bo Nix stand-alone games. Outside of Jayden Daniels, Maye might have been the most singularly impressive rookie in 2024, especially when surrounding talent is factored in. He could be in for a massive leap forward this year with upgrades on the coaching staff, offensive line and wide receiver, which will largely be enjoyed in quiet Northeast homes during the 1 p.m. ET hour after lacrosse practice and a Dunkin’ run.
• I’m taking a victory lap for my 2021 column on the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants no longer being premium television. Flex notwithstanding, this is the first time I can remember (research pending) this game not having even one premium time slot.
• Last year, we saw three of the six best net rest differentials since 2002 handed out in the same schedule (Ravens, Patriots and Vikings, with two of those teams ending up among the five best in the NFL by final record). We had two of the 12 most short weeks since ’02 handed out (Bengals and Cowboys). We had four of the 19 worst net rest differentials ever handed out. All this means the schedule is breaking from precedent at a rapid pace in order to pacify the broadcast engine. Also, it’s worth noting that after having an obnoxious minus-22 net rest differential last year, the 49ers play zero teams coming off a bye in 2025 or even a Thursday to next Sunday miniature bye.
Now, onto the five teams that got screwed.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
I had a similar complaint about the Jets’ schedule a year ago, when Aaron Rodgers was the league’s dog and pony showcase. I understand the reality of being a branded franchise in the NFL, but the Chiefs were absolutely torn apart by the NFL’s competing broadcast partners this year like a teddy bear being pawed at by a set of spoiled triplets. The Chiefs play in Brazil to start the season—and we all saw how well the setup was there last year, with both teams miraculously avoiding a swarm of soft tissue injuries—before heading home for a physical and emotional Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles. Then: Sunday Night Football in another time zone (Giants), vs. the Ravens in America’s Game of the Week, Monday Night Football at Jacksonville and Detroit on Sunday Night Football before a respite against the Raiders at 1 p.m. ET. This is the first time in NFL history that five of a team’s first eight games are in prime time—and it’s a team that also plays on both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Are we really that superstar deprived to necessitate this?
2. Washington Commanders
Perhaps this is a theme of the evening. It almost certainly underlines the downside of becoming suddenly great in the NFL. After a peaceful ramping up period, the Commanders are poised to be the NFL’s marketable team in the middle section of the schedule. Washington has a very early TNF appearance (Week 2 at Green Bay), and then the following slate starting in Week 4: back-to-back road games at Atlanta and (cross country) vs. the Chargers, then hosting Monday Night Football (Chicago), America’s Game (at Dallas), at Kansas City (Monday Night Football), against Seattle on short rest on Sunday Night Football, America’s Game vs. Detroit, vs. Miami in Madrid, a bye week, then Sunday Night Football (vs. Denver) and a 1 p.m. ET game vs. Minnesota before what I would finally consider a respite against the Giants in the 1 p.m. ET hour.
If that wasn’t enough, the Commanders’ end-of-season schedule looks like this:
• Dec. 20: A flexible 4:30 or 8:30 game vs. the Eagles.
• Dec. 25: A Christmas Day game at Dallas.
• Jan. 3/4: Facing the Eagles for the second time in three weeks.
Washington has a veteran-laden roster, with older players at critical positions (all ages as of Week 1):
• Left tackle (Laremy Tunsil, 31)
• Wide receiver 1 (Terry McLaurin, 29)
• Wide receiver 2 (Deebo Samuel, 29)
• Middle linebacker: (Bobby Wagner, 35)
• Tight end: (Zach Ertz, 34)
• DB1: (Marshon Lattimore, 29)
While prime-time games are certainly a privilege for the franchise itself, older players are far more married to routines and sleep schedules. For Ertz, Wagner, Samuel and Tunsil, all have played under bright lights long enough to likely prefer the dependability over the hype of a Monday Night Football game in which their day ends after 2 a.m.
If we think this doesn’t matter, consider that none of the three teams with the most prime-time games from 2024 made the playoffs and one—the 49ers—led the league in adjusted games lost due to injury. Meanwhile, the Vikings, Commanders and Broncos had only one prime-time game apiece last year and all made the playoffs.
3. Philadelphia Eagles
This list has a lot to do with opponents, but less than you might expect. For example, the entirety of the NFC East is down the tubes when it comes to strength of schedule (based on projected opponent win total). One could make a case for the Giants, Eagles, Commanders and Cowboys to be on this list. But the Eagles are here due to the fact that they do not have consecutive home games throughout the entire season. Let that sink in for a minute. Juxtapose this with the fact that the Titans and Cam Ward have three consecutive home games coming off a bye. The Texans have three consecutive home games. Starting on Oct. 16, the Bengals have three consecutive home games heading into the bye, with a Thursday-Sunday extended rest period to kick it off.
If we think this stuff doesn’t matter, or that it’s simply something a team must overcome—that’s bonkers. Another weird quirk: Philadelphia has two different sets of divisional games in which it’ll play an opponent twice in three weeks (the Giants in Weeks 6 and 8, and the Commanders in Weeks 16 and 18)—another wrinkle I dislike, given how disadvantageous it is for teams trying to make adjustments during a truncated period of time. This simply shouldn’t happen over the course of 17 games.
I suppose the payback for Philadelphia comes in the fact that the Eagles have a positive net rest differential going into each of their five hardest road games against last year’s playoff teams.
4. Baltimore Ravens
Even for teams that try to ooze a certain level of machismo—lifting off their shirts in pregame warmups, daring the onset of pneumonia—playing in cold weather at the end of the season is, to put it simply, awful. It turns games into higher-variance atmospheres, with missed tackles becoming a larger factor as well as fumbles and dropped passes. Weather in the Northeast is more consistently questionable, with snow, ice and wind factoring in. Concussion risk doubles and certain lower-body sprains are more common in cold weather.
In combing through all the schedules, I noticed this year that Baltimore plays in only cold weather, outdoor games from Nov. 16 (at Browns) onward through the rest of the season.
You might say: “You are the Baltimore Ravens, tough tarts.” But my response is that the Ravens almost never have to do this without some kind of respite. In fact:
In 2024: Baltimore had road games indoors against both the Chargers and Texans between those same dates.
In 2023: Baltimore had road games against the Chargers, 49ers and Jaguars between those same dates.
In 2022: Baltimore had a road game against the Jaguars during those same dates.
The Ravens had a similar stretch in 2021 and lost their final six games of the season (though, oddly, won their final five games of the COVID-19 season under similar conditions).
Now factor in that the Ravens are breaking in a rookie kicker for the first time in more than a decade and have a now 28-year-old mobile quarterback who takes hits on nearly every play, and it seems like an unfortunate way for an AFC North contender to have to end a year. Pittsburgh has games at Arizona and indoors against the Colts during that same stretch. The Bengals have a trip to Miami at the end of the season to break up the cold stretch as well.
5. Jacksonville Jaguars
I was first alerted to the Jaguars’ schedule thanks to a note from former Jaguars beat man Eugene Frenette: All of Jacksonville’s divisional road games come immediately after a road trip that forces the Jaguars to switch time zones. So, the Texans road game follows a cross-country trip to Las Vegas. The Titans road game follows a cross-country trip to Arizona. The Colts road game comes after a road game against Denver.
On a different note, Jacksonville’s London advantage over the Rams got diminished this year thanks to the NFL slotting in the West Coast team at Baltimore the week prior. Jacksonville’s time zone schedule in and around the Week 7 London game is frantic, with the Jaguars going from East Coast time to GMT, then back to East Coast time for the bye, followed by Pacific Time (Vegas) to Central Time (Houston).
As it relates to Travis Hunter specifically, I find the schedule doubly interesting. Pro Football Focus did a nice job of breaking out some problematic matchups in particular. Hunter, it seems, will primarily be a wide receiver with some kind of role as a cornerback. One would assume it will take a few weeks for Jacksonville to get comfortable with a settled plan, and there are some devilish stretches in this schedule. For example, a Jets-Broncos swing in Weeks 15 and 16 has Hunter against Patrick Surtain II, arguably the best man corner in the NFL, a week after Sauce Gardner, who was a top-10 man cornerback in 2023 before a disastrous ’24 season. Hunter starts the season against Jaycee Horn, who allowed a career-low 53% completion rate last year on balls thrown in his direction. Derek Stingley Jr., who may end up being the best cornerback in football this year, is on the schedule twice (and two weeks after the Horn matchup). While not perfect, the schedule seems to fan out where every other week Hunter would either be playing a premier corner as a wideout, or a premier wideout as a corner (with both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins waiting in Week 2, between the Horn matchup in Week 1 and the Stingley matchup in Week 3).
Finally, Jacksonville is fourth in total air miles traveled this year, at 29,006.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2025 NFL Schedule: Five Teams That Got Screwed.