For 20 years, the NFL did Sunday Night Football on NBC is the marquee prime-time game of the weekend. Flexible scheduling is one of SNF’s selling points to NBC, with the league’s ability to trade lackluster games for higher-quality matchups. For several years, SNF has opened its flex scheduling window in Week 5 instead of the back-end of the season.
However, the 2-5 Philadelphia Eagles and 1-4-1 Washington Commanders are not flexing this weekend, even though there are more compelling and flex-worthy games on the Week 8 schedule. Is this just a case of NFC East bias? Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, and it’s largely of the NFL’s own making.
Enjoyable FOX and CBS: Automatic protections for divisional games, extended weekly protection
The games that immediately stand out as possible SNF replacement options are division rivalries:
- Cleveland Browns (5-2) at Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2)
- Minnesota Vikings (6-0) at Detroit Lions (4-2)
- Kansas City Chiefs (5-1) at Denver Broncos (5-2)
There’s just one problem: All three of these matchups have happened or will happen in prime-time.
The Browns beat the Steelers Thursday Night Football in Week 4, the Chiefs beat the Broncos Monday Night Football in Week 1, and the Vikings are set to host the Lions at Sunday Night Football on Sunday the 15th.
Under the current broadcast agreement, which begins in 2023, there are significant changes to schedule protection rules to prevent FOX and CBS from losing marquee games to NBC, ESPN/ABC, and Prime Video. Unlike in, say, 2016, when NBC flexed the Chiefs at the Broncos in November while already having the Broncos at the Chiefs in December, FOX and CBS have the rights to broadcast one of the two divisional rivalry games they normally air. That makes those three games effectively the limits for distortion in any prime-time window.
FOX and CBS were also given expanded protections beyond divisional games. They are both allowed to protect one game per week during the flex window (except Week 18). Those protections are separate from the automatic protections for division splits.
FOX probably protects the Vikings over the Lions either way, while CBS probably protects the Baltimore Ravens over the Buffalo Bills. If Ravens-Bills isn’t protected and doesn’t flex, that probably depends on the Ravens having a game Thursday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars, because typically the NFL doesn’t do SNF on TNF turnarounds.
Other bent worthy options stink
Sometimes you get lucky with the schedule and sometimes you don’t. If you remove the automatically protected division games and the Ravens and Bills, you are left with the following options:
- Atlanta Falcons (3-4) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-5)
- Arizona Cardinals (2-5) at Dallas Cowboys (3-4)
- New England Patriots (4-3) at Miami Dolphins (1-6)
- Indianapolis Colts (2-5) at Jacksonville Jaguars (4-2)
- Tennessee Titans (1-6) at Cincinnati Bengals (4-2)
- Las Vegas Raiders (3-4) at New York Jets (2-5)
- Los Angeles Chargers (0-6) at Los Angeles Rams (3-4)
Oh. There are no games between teams above .500 in this group, and somehow, only the Falcons at the Bucs seem to have significant playoff implications for both teams due to the continued desolate nature of the NFC South. Defeat decisions at this stage of the NFL regular season are made at least 12 days in advance, so the Falcons and Bucs are never considered.
The NFC East is somehow still within reach of the Eagles and Commanders
If you really had to sell the Eagles on the Commanders as somewhat relevant, we need look no further than the state of the NFC East.
The first-place New York Giants are close, so they sit at 4-2-1 heading into Week 9, while the Dallas Cowboys are in hot pursuit at 3-4. A win in Philadelphia puts the Eagles just one behind the Giants in the win streak, while a Commanders victory puts them exactly two games behind the Giants, although they would have been in better shape if any of the Commanders knew about the concept of a running clock when they faced New York a few weeks ago.
Other than that, this could be Dan Quinn’s last game as Commanders coach if he loses again. That’s about as compelling as it gets.
The NFL has made it difficult to distort bad games outside of prime-time
Get used to it until at least the NFL can opt out of its current media rights deal at the end of the 2029 season. Between stronger FOX and CBS protection rules, expanded standalone windows for ever-expanding international games, the proliferation of late-season national Saturday kickoffs, previously nonexistent holiday specials like Thanksgiving Eve on Netflix, Black Friday on Prime Video, and Christmas Day doubleheaders on Netflix, there are more time slots and rights holders to satisfy. It also means there are fewer pathways to booting bad games like Eagles vs. Commanders outside of prime-time for better matchups.
Ironically, the NFL has made the original goal of flex scheduling even more inflexible to do.