NFL Schedule 2015 Released

by

The NFL announced today its 17-week, 256-game regular-season schedule for 2015, which kicks off on Thursday night, September 10 in New England and concludes on Sunday, January 3 with 16 division games. The season begins with the NFL’s annual primetime kickoff game.

The opener on September 10 on NBC (8:30 PM ET) will spotlight the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium. Week 1 is a CBS national weekend with the key doubleheader game on Sunday, September 13 (4:25 PM ET) featuring the Baltimore Ravens at the Denver Broncos.

NBC’s Sunday Night Football gets underway on September 13 when the Dallas Cowboys host the New York Giants (8:30 PM ET). Kickoff Weekend concludes on Monday, September 14 with an ESPN Monday Night Football doubleheader.

The Atlanta Falcons will host the Philadelphia Eagles (7:10 PM ET) in the first game followed by the Minnesota Vikings at the San Francisco 49ers (10:20 PM ET). ESPN will televise one game each Monday night in Weeks 2-16. There will be no Monday night game on the final regular-season weekend (Week 17) to provide more flexibility for the scheduling of the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs.

A select number of games will be “cross-flexed,” moving between CBS and FOX to bring potentially under-distributed games to wider audiences. Some of those contests were announced today, including the Chicago Bears at Seattle Seahawks (4:25 PM ET, CBS) in Week 3 and the Carolina Panthers at Dallas Cowboys (4:30 PM ET, CBS) on Thanksgiving Day. Other “cross-flexed” games will be decided during the season. The regular season will conclude with Week 17 on Sunday, January 3. For the sixth consecutive year, all 16 games scheduled for Week 17 are division contests, enhancing the potential for more games with playoff ramifications. The Pro Bowl will return to Hawaii on Sunday, January 31 (ESPN) and be played at Aloha Stadium. The season concludes the following week on Sunday, February 7 with Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium (CBS), capping a year-long celebration of the Super Bowl.

Other highlights of the schedule:

Thanksgiving will feature a tripleheader on Thursday, November 26. The first game will send the Philadelphia Eagles to Detroit to face the Lions (12:30 PM ET, FOX). The late afternoon game will feature the Carolina Panthers visiting the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 PM ET, CBS). The holiday concludes with an NFC North rivalry as the Green Bay Packers host the Chicago Bears on NBC (8:30 PM ET).

The NFL will continue its International Series of regular-season games with three games being played in London at Wembley Stadium. All three games will kick off at 9:30 AM ET. In Week 4 on Sunday, October 4, the Miami Dolphins will host the New York Jets in the first division game played in the United Kingdom.

It will be broadcast nationally on CBS. In Week 7 on Sunday, October 25, the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Buffalo Bills in a game that will be distributed globally over a digital platform and televised in the Jacksonville and Buffalo markets on CBS. The following week, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Detroit Lions at Wembley on Sunday, November 1 in a FOX national game.

NFL Network and CBS will team to feature a schedule of 16 games – 14 on Thursday night and two late in the season on Saturday night (Weeks 15 and 16). Beginning in Week 2 with the Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs, CBS will air seven consecutive games on Thursday night that will be simulcast on NFL Network. Additionally, CBS will broadcast the Week 13 Thursday night contest between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions on December 3. NFL Network will televise six late-season Thursday night games and two Saturday night contests in the run-up to the playoffs. Weeks 15 and 16 will each showcase a Saturday primetime game on NFL Network – the New York Jets at the Dallas Cowboys (December 19) and the Washington Redskins at the Philadelphia Eagles (December 26).

The NFL’s 32 teams will each play 16 games over 17 weeks. Byes will begin in Week 4 and end in Week 11. “Flexible scheduling” will be used in Weeks 11-17. Additionally, in Weeks 5-10, flexible scheduling may be used in no more than two weeks. In Weeks 5-16, the schedule lists the games tentatively set for Sunday Night Football on NBC.

Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time. Flexible scheduling will not be applied to games airing on Thursday, Saturday or Monday nights. A flexible scheduling move would be announced at least 12 days before the game.

For Week 17, the Sunday night game will be announced no later than six days prior to January 3. The schedule does not list a Sunday night game in Week 17, but an afternoon game with playoff implications will be moved to that time slot. Flexible scheduling ensures quality matchups in all Sunday time slots in those weeks and gives “surprise” teams a chance to play their way into prime time. The playoffs will include four division winners and two wild cards from each conference. The playoffs begin with Wild Card Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, January 9-10. The two division winners with the best records in each conference will earn first-round byes.

Wild Card Weekend winners join the top two division champions in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs on Saturday and Sunday, January 16-17. The AFC and NFC Championship Games will be played on Sunday, January 24. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 7 in Super Bowl 50. The NFL is the only sports league that presents all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets. All postseason games are televised nationally. Westwood One will broadcast on radio all NFL primetime games, the three Thanksgiving Day games and the entire NFL playoffs.

2015 NFL Schedule

Leave a Comment