• Loading stock data...
Wednesday, June 4, 2025

NFL Releases 2025 Schedule With Heavy Focus on Standalone Matchups

With a set of scheduling factors that is larger and more complex than ever, the NFL is looking to give each game maximum attention.

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

There are only 272 games in the NFL regular-season schedule. Amid the roughly one quadrillion potential ways of arranging them, however, the league has landed on a 2025 slate designed to make each one of those games as unique and special as possible.

As planned for weeks, the NFL released its full 2025 schedule Wednesday night, unveiling a slate that places more games than ever in exclusive broadcast windows. Among the moves to break more contests into individual slots beyond the existing windows on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights:

The heightened separation of games is happening as the NFL saw regular-season ratings fall 2% last year and is looking to have that not become a trend. NFL games, however, are also set to be a focal point of an expanded measurement methodology recently introduced by Nielsen, as they are top-rated programming in all of U.S. television.

The full drop of the schedule followed three days of pre-release announcements by Amazon, CBS, ESPN, Fox, and NBC, in addition to Netflix. 

The Power of the Kingdom

As was the case last year, the NFL’s leaning heavily into the widespread appeal of the Chiefs, even as they were trounced by the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. 

As the league’s top viewership draw, Kansas City will play internationally in the season’s first week, on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and also in five other standalone slots. Just four of the team’s 17 games start at 1 p.m. ET. 

More Schedule Highlights 

Not surprisingly, each of the NFL’s domestic rights holders touted the appeal of their respective schedules. Amazon will again have all 14 of the 2024 season’s playoff participants for its Thursday Night Football schedule, as well as 10 divisional matchups. CBS Sports will air up to nine Chiefs games, including a massive Nov. 2 matchup against the Bills, and up to nine for Buffalo and 11 for the Steelers. NBC Sports has eight Sunday Night Football games involving matchups of postseason participants last season. ESPN will have 25 total games, including 11 in the first seven weeks. 

Fox will get the coveted Super Bowl LIX rematch between the Eagles and Chiefs in Week 2.

“The schedule is deep and well balanced, and something we see providing additional momentum as we look to build further audience,” Amazon Prime Video head of sports programming Jeff Kaiser tells FOS. “The big draw of divisional games provides a lot of upside, particularly late in the season.”

Social Media Frenzy

The Super Bowl for NFL players arrives in February, but for each team’s social media staff, that tentpole arrives on the day of the schedule release. This year was no exception as each of them sought to showcase their upcoming games.

Inventive displays of the schedule were developed by teams such as the Chargers, Titans, Ravens, Cardinals, and Falcons.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

LeBron James

Adam Silver: All-Star Game Will Be USA vs. World in Daytime Event

The NBA tried a tournament last year that fell in ratings.
Jun 2, 2025; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders players celebrate after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 3-2 and advance to the finals against Texas in the NCAA Softball Women's College World Series semifinal game at Devon Park.

How Texas Tech Put Together Its First-Ever Women’s College World Series Run

AD Kirby Hocutt speaks with FOS about the Red Raiders’ winning formula.
May 1, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Stephen A. Smith attends game six of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs between the Denver Nuggets and the LA Clippers at Intuit Dome.

Stephen A. Smith Political Pivot Continues With Non-Sports Sirius Show

One of the busiest men in sports media gets even busier.

ACC Lawsuits Formally Closed, but How Long Will Peace Remain?

Florida State, Clemson, and the ACC have ended their litigation.

Featured Today

May 27, 2015; Paris, France; Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) knocks the clay off her shoe during her match against Simona Halep (ROU) on day four of the French Open at Roland Garros

Roland-Garros’s Iconic Red-Clay Surface Is a Precise Alchemy

The exact science behind maintaining the French Open’s red clay.
Alex Jensen introductory press conference on Monday, March 17, 2025.
June 3, 2025

Alex Jensen Started Utah Utes HC Job While Still Coaching the Mavs

How Jensen began building an NCAA program while patrolling the Dallas sideline.
May 31, 2025

PSG and the City of Paris Can Join European Soccer’s Elite

What a maiden Champions League title would mean for the French club.
May 30, 2025

How the Champions League Anthem Took on a Life of Its Own

The composer didn’t know he wrote a timeless hit three decades ago.

As TNT Sports Shifts, WBD Investors Reject $52M Zaslav Pay

Company shareholders reject the executive’s pay in a non-binding vote.
May 30, 2025

French Open Scheduling Sparks Backlash Over Women’s Time Slots

Coco Gauff has also said the French Open schedule could be improved.
hanson_smiling
May 30, 2025

Scott Hanson Agrees to Long-Term Deal for NFL RedZone

His contract expired after the 2024 season.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

In Episode 7 of Portfolio Players, go inside the boardroom with Avenue Capital CEO and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry on Giannis’s future, women’s sports, and upstart leagues like TGL and Unrivaled. 
May 30, 2025

Panthers-Oilers Rematch Could Be Big in Canada. Will U.S. Ratings Dip?

Likely viewership declines in the U.S. are countered by robust Canadian audiences.
May 28, 2025

NBA East Finals Delivers Strong TV Ratings, but West Is Struggling

The Pacers and Thunder are both up 3–1 in their conference finals series.
Around the Horn
May 23, 2025

Behind the Scenes of Around the Horn’s Final Days

FOS followed Tony Reali at the penultimate taping of the ESPN icon.
Around the Horn - October 26, 2020
May 23, 2025

‘Quirky, Nutty, Bombastic’: 10 ‘Around the Horn’ Faces on Their Top Moments

“A quirky, nutty, bombastic, mostly wrong, sometimes right, crazy sports family.”