2025 NFL schedule: Predicting the top matchups, including Thanksgiving and Christmas games, plus season opener

The release of the 2025 NFL schedule is officially less than one week away. The full schedule will be unveiled on May 14 and if you’re looking for a way to fill some time between now and then, you can read our schedule predictions. 

We’re going to attempt to predict the exact matchups for some of the biggest games of the year, including the Thursday night opener. The NFL will also be holding a tripleheader on both Thanksgiving AND Christmas this year and we’ll also be throwing out some predictions for those six games. 

Remember, these are just predictions, so don’t go booking any flights or hotel rooms just yet. With that in mind, let’s get to the predictions, starting with the first game of the season in Philadelphia. 

NFL Thursday night opener (Sept. 4)

• Home team: Philadelphia Eagles
• Time: 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC, fubo try for free)
• Possible opponents: Giants, Cowboys, Commanders, Lions, Bears, Rams, Broncos, Raiders
• Breakdown: 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. So who will they play? It’s been 13 years since we’ve seen a Super Bowl champ host a divisional opponent in this game, so let’s take out the Commanders, Cowboys and Giants. If there’s one thing the NFL loves, it’s putting a team in this game that made the playoffs last season and the league also loves a good playoff rematch, which leaves two obvious options. They could go with the Lions, a team that the Eagles would have faced in the NFC title game last season if Detroit didn’t suffer an upset loss in the divisional round. The Rams also seem like a likely option since they came the closest to beating Philly during last year’s postseason. 
• Predicted opponent: Lions or Rams

Thanksgiving Tripleheader (Nov. 27)

• Home team: Detroit Lions
• Time: 12:30 p.m. ET/1 p.m. ET game (Fox, fubo try for free)    
• Possible opponents: Bears, Packers, Vikings, Giants, Buccaneers, Browns, Steelers
• Breakdown: The NFL clearly has a preference for this game: Over the past nine years, the Lions have either faced an NFC North rival (seven times) or an AFC team (two times), so it feels like the league will likely go with one of those two options once again. In 2023, the NFL put the Packers in this game during Jordan Love’s first full year as a starter. In 2024, the league put the Bears in this game during Caleb Williams‘ first year as a starter. In 2025, it wouldn’t be surprising if the league puts the Vikings in this game during J.J. McCarthy’s first year as a starter. 
• Predicted opponent: Vikings or Steelers

• Home team: Dallas Cowboys
• Time: 4:30 p.m. ET game (CBS, Paramount+)
• Possible opponents: Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Packers, Vikings, Cardinals, Chiefs, Chargers
• Breakdown: This is generally the most-watched regular-season game of the year and the numbers could go through the roof if the NFL decides to put the Chiefs here. Patrick Mahomes has played on Christmas and Black Friday in his career, but he hasn’t gotten the chance to play on Thanksgiving, so this could be a chance for the NFL to finally put him on Turkey Day. That being said, the Cowboys have faced a divisional opponent in three of the past four years, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see an NFC East team in this spot. 
• Predicted opponent: Commanders or Chiefs

• Home team: TBA
• Time: 8:20 p.m. ET game (NBC, fubo try for free)    
• Breakdown: Over the past five years, the prime time Thanksgiving game has featured at least one team that made the playoffs in the prior season, so it seems like a lock that we’ll see at least one 2024 playoff team in this slot and possibly two. 
• Predicted game: Broncos at Chargers or Seahawks at Rams

Black Friday (Nov. 28)

• Time: 3 p.m. ET (Amazon)
• Home team: TBA
• Breakdown: There have only been two Black Friday games in NFL history and both times, the game ended up featuring two division rivals. In 2023, it was Dolphins-Jets, and that was followed by a Raiders-Chiefs game in 2024. In 2023, the NFL thought Aaron Rodgers was going to be starting for the Jets. In 2024, the league put Patrick Mahomes in this game, so there will definitely be one must-see team in this spot. 
• Predicted game: Patriots at Bills or Giants at Eagles

Christmas Tripleheader (Dec. 25)

The NFL is trying to take over Christmas and if you’re trying to do that, then it makes sense to schedule three big games. Last year, we saw the league schedule four playoff teams from 2023 in the 2024 Christmas slot (Chiefs-Steelers, Ravens-Texans) and all four of those teams ended up making the playoffs again. 

The Chiefs have played on Christmas for two straight years and they’ve actually asked the NFL to let them play on Christmas every year. Although the league has indicated that won’t be happening, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Chiefs regularly playing on Dec. 25 as long as Patrick Mahomes is their quarterback. 

• Time: 1 p.m. ET game (Netflix)
• Predicted game: Texans at Chiefs or Lions at Ravens
• Time: 4:30 p.m. ET game (Netflix)
• Predicted game: Bengals at Bills or Commanders at Packers
• Time: 8:20 p.m. ET game (Amazon)
• Predicted game: Rams at 49ers or Eagles at Broncos

If you want more schedule predictions, don’t worry, we’ve got that. There will be seven international games on the NFL schedule this year and we attempted to predict all of the matchups here. 

Remember, 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 heading here.