2025 NFL schedule (and video) winners and losers, plus how it’s made

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I felt something while reading the NFL’s 2025 schedule last night. Hope? I’m a Bengals fan. We know better. Excited curiosity is the better description. I’ll explain why.

Inside: Everything you should know about the 2025 schedule, including the Giants’ brutal start, plus how it gets made.

This article is from Scoop City, The Athletic’s NFL newsletter. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox.

NFL’s Gridiron Grammys

Social media interest in the NFL’s annual schedule release exceeds that of the NBA and NHL playoffs. Wild.

Imagine the opposite. Posting about another sport while an NFL playoff game is live? Unthinkable. Our sports business newsletter writer, Dan Schanoff, put it best in his MoneyCall newsletter: The NFL owns the entire calendar.

The annual schedule release is more than just an announcement. Teams take months to create viral videos, a trend that started when the Seahawks baked their schedule in 2016.

Competition for the Gridiron Grammys is always fierce.

Buffalo used AI (the original kind) and Atlanta went racing, but the Chargers owned the internet by using Minecraft to show Anthony Richardson running out of gas, Liam Coen’s Duvaaal and the ghost of Saquon Barkley haunting Giants fans.

As an appreciator of the Chargers social team, I enjoyed Sports Illustrated’s behind-the-scenes look into their process. The Colts got a little too creative in their version, mocking the arrest of Tyreek Hill before quickly deleting it. 😬

I’m still waiting for one to make me laugh harder than the 2023 Titans’ legendary person-on-the-street video, however.

We asked people on Broadway to help us with our 2023 schedule release. 🤣

📺: 2023 Schedule Release on @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/31LsUUDn3O

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) May 12, 2023

The schedule. Right. Here’s why it got me excited and curious.

Early slogs, best matchups and games to watch

I’m excited to see members of this year’s rookie class, such as the most under-discussed No. 1 QB in NFL history (Cam Ward), familiar faces in new places and the rebound of stars we missed in 2024, like Christian McCaffrey and Aidan Hutchinson.

I’m curious to see how DK Metcalf looks in a Steelers uniform and how Stefon Diggs adapts to New England. How will Ben Johnson improve Caleb Williams? How do the Lions fare without both Johnson and former DC Aaron Glenn? Will the Bengals bother fielding a defense? The drama surrounding star pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson’s contract is getting personal. So many questions.

Let’s talk answers. Here’s where teams fall, with help from Jeff Howe’s definitive list of schedule winners and losers:

Best start: Football fans

Week 1 promises to be epic, and not just because the Lions might still be healthy.

• Eagles host the rejuvenated Cowboys on Thursday
• Friday, Chargers take on the Chiefs … in Brazil(!)
• If Aaron Rodgers signs with Pittsburgh, he’ll play the Jets on Sunday afternoon
• Sunday night spoils us with Josh Allen against Lamar Jackson
• Then J.J. McCarthy and Ben Johnson make their debuts on Monday night football

All that plus NFL RedZone’s Scott Hansen on your TV. Giddy up.

Toughest start (Weeks 1-4): Giants

There’s a good chance we see Jaxson Dart as early as Week 5. Why? 0-4 is a possibility for the Giants, who open with road games against the Commanders and Cowboys before hosting the Chiefs and Chargers. Oof. It doesn’t get any easier for coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, who have the league’s toughest schedule based on their opponents’ 2024 win percentage. Not a good year to be in the hot seat.

Other tough starts:

• Browns (CIN, @BAL, GB, @DET)
• Ravens (@BUF, CLE, DET, @KC)
• Bears (MIN, @DET, DAL, LV) 

Easiest start: Panthers

Schedule makers appreciated Bryce Young’s sophomore jump, giving the Panthers their second “Monday Night Football” game since 2019. They were also gifted one of the league’s easiest opening schedules, with games against the Jaguars, Cardinals, Falcons and Patriots. Other teams that have it good:

• Patriots (LV, @MIA, PIT, CAR)
• Bills, after their Week 1 showdown in Baltimore (@NYJ, MIA, NO, NE)
• Dolphins (@IND, NE, BUF, NYJ, CAR)

Pack Your Bags: Vikings

A record seven international games are scheduled in five countries this year. Only the Vikings have multiple games outside the U.S., with The Athletic’s Vikings beat reporter Alec Lewis explaining that Minnesota’s players enjoyed their two international trips since 2022. Undoubtebly encouraged by their 2-0 record, the Vikings also use these trips to expand their fanbase. SKOL!

Prime time: Chiefs, Eagles and … Cowboys

Of the three teams with six or more prime time games, two were in the Super Bowl and the other is in Dallas, where Super Bowls may be an afterthought. But hey, at least they are “putting together a nice group of weapons,” per QB Dak Prescott.

Cancel holiday plans: Chiefs Lions and … Cowboys

They are the only three teams playing on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here’s the schedule:

• Thanksgiving: Cowboys host Chiefs, Packers visit Lions and Bengals travel to Baltimore, all on different platforms. Great.
• Black Friday: Bears at Eagles.
• Christmas: Netflix presents … another subscription necessary to watch football. The second act of their three-season deal has the streaming giant airing the Cowboys vs. Commanders and Lions vs. Vikings exclusively.

Best/worst full season schedule

Sharp Football compiled a strength of schedule graphic based on expected win totals for 2025, rather than 2024 records:

The 49ers appear the biggest winners of this year’s schedule. The Patriots and Saints also have a positive outlook, while the rest of the league — minus the Giants, Browns and Lions — is middling. We’ll talk more about SF below.

Toughest stretch: Cowboys

If four Thursday games weren’t already tough enough, Weeks 12 to 14 are arguably the league’s most difficult run:

• Week 12: Sunday against the Eagles on a short week
• Week 13: Thursday against the Chiefs
• Week 14: Travel to Detroit for another Thursday game

Where to watch: Everywhere

It’s probably faster to list the subscriptions you don’t need this year. Thankfully, The Athletic’s Rebecca Tauber explained how to watch every game this season. The full complement is not cheap, but at least YouTube’s game will be streamed for free.

You can find the full schedule for every team here. 

Yesterday’s “Scoop City” livestream covered the schedule release. You can watch on YouTube here or by clicking Dianna and Chase reacting to the Giants’ dreadful luck:

How it works: NFL schedule edition

The NFL’s current media rights deal sits at $111 billion over 11 years. That’s a lot of money, and a lot of pressure for the executives who sign the checks and employees who craft the schedule.

Let’s use the 49ers’ dream schedule to explain how it gets made. First, certain rules must be followed:

• SF will always play two games against each of their three NFC West divisional opponents (Rams, Seahawks and Cardinals).

• The 49ers’ last-place finish in the NFC West last season means they face the bottom-dwellers from the three other NFC divisions (Giants, Bears and Panthers).

• Each team plays each team in another division within its conference. This year, the 49ers paired with the rest of the NFC South (Falcons, Saints and Buccaneers). Lucky.

• Four more games come from another conference, which for SF means games against the AFC South (Jaguars, Texans, Colts and Titans). Again, not bad.

• The final game is a non-conference opponent chosen by the NFL, based on the prior year’s standings. The 49ers couldn’t have gotten luckier here: The Browns.

Making the NFL schedule is an art and a science. Coaches and networks lobby one man, Howard Katz, who leads the process and was recently profiled by The Athletic. That process spans from January until May and uses 200 to 300 computers. (Narrator: Really?) I guess.

The Athletic also looked into how the TV networks’ operate, with Richard Deitsch sharing the inside scoop on what media executives want from the NFL in 2025. Execs also shared expectations for this season, with two catching my eye:

1. The league thinks the Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving game can set a record for the most-viewed NFL regular-season game in history, a mark set by the Cowboys-Giants Thanksgiving game in 2022 (42.1 million).
2. There’s a focus on front-loading the schedule. It’s why we’ve got a loaded Week 1 follow by a Super Bowl rematch and Ben Johnson’s return to Detroit in Week 2.

The season can’t come soon enough. See you Monday.

Monday’s most-clicked: The five biggest steals among the top 50 prospects in this year’s draft class. Here’s the full list:

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(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

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