With the NFL Draft officially behind us, that means there’s only one big event left on the NFL’s offseason calendar: The release of the 2025 schedule. That will be unveiled on Wednesday, May 14, which is less than one week away.
The NFL will be offering a sneak peek at a few games on the schedule starting May 12. From Monday through Wednesday, the league will be unveiling a total of 13 games. Here’s a look at when those announcements will be coming:
May 12: NBC, Fox, Amazon will each announce one game May 13: ESPN will reveal one game on its schedule May 13: All seven international games will be unveiled on “Good Morning Football” May 14: CBS will unveil one game on “CBS Mornings” while Netflix will also be announcing one game
Although we won’t have the full 272-game schedule in our hands until May 14, there are a few things we already know about this year’s slate of game and we’re going to cover those below.
1) Week 1: Thursday night opener in Philadelphia. The reigning Super Bowl champion gets to host the opening game of the season, which means the Eagles will be the home team in the Thursday night opener. Their home schedule consists of the Giants, Cowboys, Commanders, Lions, Bears, Rams, Broncos and Raiders, so one of those eight teams will be featured in the opener with the Eagles. So who will they play? There are a lot of attractive options there: The NFL loves a good playoff rematch, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Rams or Commanders headed to Philadelphia. Sending the Lions to Philly would also be an intriguing opener, which will be played on Thursday, Sept. 4. We ranked the best options and you can see that here.
2) Week 1: Chargers hosting game in Brazil. For the second straight year, the NFL is putting a Week 1 game in Sao Paulo. The Chargers will be the home team for the game, which will be played on Friday, Sept. 5. There’s been a report that the Chiefs will likely be the opponent in this game, but that’s not set in stone yet. If it’s not the Chiefs, it could be the Broncos, Raiders, Texans, Commanders or Vikings. (The Chargers also play the Colts and Steelers at home, but they almost certainly won’t be playing in Brazil since they’re already scheduled to play an international game this year). Last year, the Brazil game was on Peacock, and this year, the NFL is putting the game up for bid with YouTube TV, Warner Brothers Discovery (TNT Sports), and Amazon all believed to be in the running.
3) Browns hosting a game in London. The Browns are headed to London for the first time in eight years. The last time they were in England came in 2017 when they played the Vikings. This year, they could host the Bengals, Ravens, Bills, Titans, Packers, Vikings or 49ers (They also play the Dolphins and Steelers at home, but we took them out since those two teams are already scheduled to play an international game this year).
4) Jets hosting a game in London. For the second straight year, the Jets are headed to London. Last year, they were the visiting team in a 23-17 loss to the Vikings. This year, they’ll be the home team and they could host the Patriots, Dolphins, Bills, Browns, Broncos, Falcons, Panthers, Cowboys. For the past two years, the NFL has had the Jaguars play back-to-back games in London and they could continue that formula this year with a different team by scheduling the Browns as the visiting team against the Jets, which would give Cleveland back-to-back games in England.
5) Jaguars hosting a game in London. The Jags are heading to London for the 12th time in 13 seasons. Although the Jags have played TWO games in London in each of the past two seasons, that’s unlikely to happen this year, because they’re not scheduled to play the other two London teams — the Jets or Browns — on the road. The Jags do have a home game against the Jets, so the NFL could conceivably make New York the visiting team here to give the Jets back-to-back games in England. The Jags will face the either the Texans, Titans, Chiefs, Jets, Rams, Seahawks or Panthers.
6) Colts hosting a game in Berlin. The NFL has been holding games in Germany since 2022, but this will mark the first time that Berlin has hosted one. The Colts home schedule consists of the Texans, Titans, Broncos, Raiders, Cardinals, 49ers and Falcons, so any of those teams could also be headed to Berlin. (They also play the Dolphins and Jaguars at home, but we took them out since those two teams are already scheduled to play an international game this year).
7) Steelers hosting a game in Dublin. For the first time in NFL history, the league will be playing a regular-season game in Ireland. The Steelers host the Ravens, Bengals, Bills, Vikings, Packers and Seahawks this year, so one of those teams will also be traveling to Dublin. (They also play the Browns, Colts and Dolphins at home, but we took them out since those three teams are already scheduled to play an international game this year).
8) Dolphins hosting a game in Madrid. Like Dublin and Berlin, we also have Madrid hosting a game for the first time ever. The mayor of Madrid recently revealed that this game will be played in November (Week 11), but despite some internet speculation, he didn’t reveal who the Dolphins will be playing. The Dolphins home schedule consists of the Bills, Patriots, Ravens, Bengals, Saints, Buccaneers, Commanders, so one of those teams will also be heading to Spain. (They also play the Chargers and Jets at home, but we took them out since those two teams are already scheduled to play an international game this year).
9) Week 13: Lions host on Thanksgiving. This tradition is back, but there could be a minor change. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the Lions’ Thanksgiving game will likely kickoff at 1 p.m. ET this year instead of 12:30 p.m. ET. No matter what time it starts, it will be on Fox. Since the the Lions are hosting this game, that means they’ll likely be playing the Bears, Packers, Vikings, Giants, Buccaneers, Browns or Steelers.
10) Week 13: Cowboys host on Thanksgiving. This will be a CBS game this year and it will be kicking off at 4:30 p.m. ET. The Cowboys host the Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Packers, Vikings, Cardinals, Chiefs and Chargers this season, so any of those teams could be the opponents. The Chiefs haven’t played on Thanksgiving since 2006, so putting them in this spot could score a huge TV rating for the NFL. The Chiefs played on Christmas and Black Friday last year and it will be interesting to see if the league decides to put them on Turkey Day for the first time in 19 years. Speaking of Black Friday, the NFL’s newest tradition is expected to continue with Amazon streaming a Black Friday game on Nov. 28.
11) Week 17: Christmas tripleheader that will make history. The league has historically avoided scheduling any games when Christmas has fallen on a Thursday — there has NEVER been a Thursday game on Christmas in NFL history — but the league is now fully embracing the holiday, so we’re getting three this year. If the NFL sticks to the same Christmas tripleheader schedule that it has had in the past, then the games will be staggered throughout the day with kickoff times at 1 p.m. ET (Netflix), 4:30 p.m. ET (Netflix) and 8:20 p.m. ET (Amazon). You can read more about the Christmas tripleheader here.
Although we don’t know the schedule yet, we do know who each team will be playing and you can check out the home-and-away opponents for all 32 teams by clicking here. If you want to know what the international schedule might look like this year, we predicted what the matchup might be for each game and you can check that out here.
The NFL schedule release has become a major offseason event for the league and this year should be no exception.
