The NFL releases its schedule ... for the preseason
NFL fans start to get itchy this time of year for any games to be added to the calendar. Even the ones in August that don’t count.
At least Wednesday’s release of the preseason schedule gives us something. The NFL announced its 65-game preseason schedule, including the Hall of Fame game, on Wednesday afternoon. It can be found here on the league’s site.
When will the regular-season schedule be released?
The exact date hasn’t been announced yet. But the release of the preseason schedule pretty much just reminds us that it’s about this time every year the regular-season schedule gets released, to great fanfare. It’s probably too late this week for the regular-season schedule to be released, since the NFL hasn’t even announced what day that will happen. It won’t want to do it on draft week (April 26-28), and take away from those headlines. So the best guess is that the regular-season schedule gets released sometime in the middle of next week.
The schedule makers have a lot of team requests to take into account, which is why the NFL doesn’t announce the release date far ahead of time. But it almost always happens in April, so it should be coming soon.
When can I see football again?
The annual Hall of Fame game is Aug. 2 between the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears. Those two teams will participate because Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, legendary linebackers for the respective teams, are being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame that week. The Hall of Fame game was set a couple months ago, and it will be the first live NFL action since the Super Bowl ended. The first full week of preseason games starts Aug. 9.
Which preseason games will be on national TV?
It says something about the NFL’s popularity that some of its preseason tune-up games will be in prime time, on major networks. Here’s the schedule of nationally televised preseason games, from NFL.com (all times Eastern):
Thursday, Aug. 2: Chicago Bears vs. Baltimore Ravens (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Thursday, Aug. 16: New York Jets vs. Washington Redskins (ESPN, 8 p.m.)
Monday, Aug. 20: Baltimore Ravens vs. Indianapolis Colts (ESPN, 8 p.m.)
Thursday, Aug. 23: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Cleveland Browns (Fox, 8 p.m.)
Friday, Aug. 24: Detroit Lions vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (CBS, 8 p.m.)
Saturday, Aug. 25: New Orleans Saints vs. Los Angeles Chargers (CBS, 8 p.m.)
Sunday, Aug. 26: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills (Fox, 4 p.m.)
Sunday, Aug. 26: Arizona Cardinals vs. Dallas Cowboys (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Are any games worth circling on the calendar?
A few games stand out, including a Week 4 matchup between the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens. Former Redskins star Robert Griffin III recently signed with the Ravens, after spending last year out of football. If Griffin is still on the Ravens roster by the end of the preseason, he could get a lot of playing time that week against his former team.
There is also an interesting matchup between the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants in Week 1 of the preseason. That could feature the NFL preseason debuts of the first two picks of the draft. The Browns have the first (and fourth) picks of the draft and the Giants are slated to draft second. It’s possible both of those picks will be quarterbacks, which would make for an interesting evening at MetLife Stadium. The New York Jets also might draft a quarterback third overall, and his preseason debut could also happen that week at MetLife Stadium, against the Falcons.
There will be head coaches in their first games with their new teams, and none of those debuts will be as anticipated as Jon Gruden’s first preseason game with the Oakland Raiders, which will come at home against the Detroit Lions.
And here’s the full schedule
HALL OF FAME GAME – AUG. 2
Chicago vs. Baltimore (NBC)
WEEK 1 – AUG. 9-13
LA Chargers at Arizona
LA Rams at Baltimore
Carolina at Buffalo
Chicago at Cincinnati
Minnesota at Denver
Tennessee at Green Bay
New Orleans at Jacksonville
Houston at Kansas City
Tampa Bay at Miami
Washington at New England
Cleveland at NY Giants
Atlanta at NY Jets
Detroit at Oakland
Pittsburgh at Philadelphia
Dallas at San Francisco
Indianapolis at Seattle
WEEK 2 – AUG. 16-20
Kansas City at Atlanta
Miami at Carolina
Buffalo at Cleveland
Cincinnati at Dallas
Chicago at Denver
NY Giants at Detroit
Pittsburgh at Green Bay
San Francisco at Houston
Baltimore at Indianapolis (ESPN, 8/20)
Seattle at LA Chargers
Oakland at LA Rams
Jacksonville at Minnesota
Philadelphia at New England
Arizona at New Orleans
Tampa Bay at Tennessee
NY Jets at Washington (ESPN, 8/16)
WEEK 3 – AUGUST 23-26
Cincinnati at Buffalo (Fox, 8/26)
New England at Carolina
Kansas City at Chicago
Philadelphia at Cleveland (Fox, 8/23)
Arizona at Dallas (NBC, 8/26)
San Francisco at Indianapolis
Atlanta at Jacksonville
New Orleans at LA Chargers (CBS, 8/25)
Houston at LA Rams
Baltimore at Miami
Seattle at Minnesota
NY Giants at NY Jets
Green Bay at Oakland
Tennessee at Pittsburgh
Detroit at Tampa Bay (CBS, 8/24)
Denver at Washington
WEEK 4 – AUG. 30-31
Denver at Arizona
Miami at Atlanta
Washington at Baltimore
Buffalo at Chicago
Indianapolis at Cincinnati
Cleveland at Detroit
Dallas at Houston
Green Bay at Kansas City
LA Rams at New Orleans
New England at NY Giants
NY Jets at Philadelphia
Carolina at Pittsburgh
LA Chargers at San Francisco
Oakland at Seattle
Jacksonville at Tampa Bay
Minnesota at Tennessee
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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