Updates

The NFL announced today its 17-week, 256-game regular-season schedule for 2017, which kicks off on Thursday night, Sept. 7 in New England and concludes on Sunday, Dec. 31 with 16 division games.

The season begins with the NFL’s annual primetime kickoff game. The opener on Sept. 7 on NBC (8:30 PM ET) will spotlight the defending champion New England Patriots hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium. 

Week 1 is a FOX national weekend with the key doubleheader game on Sunday, Sept. 10 (4:25 PM ET) featuring the Seattle Seahawks at the Green Bay Packers. Week 3 is the first CBS national weekend with the key doubleheader game showcasing the Cincinnati Bengals facing the Packers at Lambeau Field.  

NBC’s Sunday Night Football gets underway on Sept. 10 when the Dallas Cowboys host the New York Giants (8:30 PM ET) at AT&T Stadium.

Kickoff Weekend concludes on Monday, Sept. 11 with an ESPN Monday Night Football doubleheader. The Minnesota Vikings will host the New Orleans Saints (7:10 PM ET) in the first game followed by the Los Angeles Chargers visiting the Denver Broncos in the nightcap (10:20 PM ET).  

ESPN will televise one game each Monday night in Weeks 2-16. There will be no Monday night game on the final regular-season weekend (Week 17) to provide more flexibility for the scheduling of the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs. 

Learn about the NFL’s scheduling process.

A select number of games will be “cross-flexed,” moving between CBS and FOX to bring potentially under-distributed games to wider audiences. Some of those contests were announced today, including the Seahawks at the Giants (4:25 PM ET, CBS) in Week 7 and the Vikings at the Carolina Panthers (1:00 PM ET, CBS) in Week 14. Other “cross-flexed” games will be decided during the season. 

The regular season will conclude with Week 17 on Sunday, Dec. 31. For the eighth consecutive year, all 16 games scheduled for Week 17 are division contests, enhancing the potential for more games with playoff ramifications.

Other highlights of the schedule include:

In Week 2, the Atlanta Falcons will open their new home – Mercedes-Benz Stadium – on Sunday, Sept. 17 in primetime (8:30 PM ET, NBC) when they host the Packers in a rematch of last season’s NFC Championship Game. Earlier that day, the Chargers will make their return to Los Angeles as they host the Miami Dolphins at the StubHub Center (4:05 PM ET, CBS). 

The Patriots will host the Falcons in Week 7 on Sunday night, Oct. 22 (8:30 PM ET, NBC) in a rematch of Super Bowl LI, the first Super Bowl in NFL history to go into overtime. 

Thanksgiving will feature a tripleheader on Thursday, Nov. 23. The first game will send the Vikings to Detroit to face the Lions (12:30 PM ET, FOX) for the second consecutive year. The late afternoon game will feature the Chargers visiting the Cowboys (4:30 PM ET, CBS). The holiday concludes with the Washington Redskins hosting the Giants on NBC (8:30 PM ET). 

In Week 16, NBC’s Sunday Night Football game (Vikings at Packers) will move to Saturday night, Dec. 23 (8:30 PM ET, NBC) due to Christmas Eve and is not subject to flexible scheduling. Christmas Day will feature a doubleheader on Monday, Dec. 25 with the Houston Texans hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers (4:30 PM ET, NBC/NFLN/Amazon Prime) in the first game and the Oakland Raiders visiting the Philadelphia Eagles (8:30 PM ET, ESPN) in primetime.

The NFL’s international slate includes four games in London – the first time the league will play four games in the UK – and one in Mexico City. On Sunday, Sept. 24, the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Baltimore Ravens at London’s Wembley Stadium (9:30 AM ET, distribution to be announced at a later date). The next weekend, on Sunday, Oct. 1, the Dolphins will host the Saints at Wembley (9:30 AM ET, FOX). In Week 7, the Los Angeles Rams will host the Arizona Cardinals at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 22 (1:00 PM ET, FOX). The following week, the Cleveland Browns will host the Vikings at Twickenham on Sunday, Oct. 29 (9:30 AM ET, NFLN). The NFL will return to Mexico City on Sunday, Nov. 19 (4:25 PM ET, CBS) when the Oakland Raiders host the Patriots at Estadio Azteca. 

The NFL has partnered with Amazon Prime this season and will once again use a “Tri-Cast” distribution model of broadcast (CBS/NBC), cable (NFL Network) and digital (Amazon Prime Video) for 10 Thursday Night Football games and a Christmas Day contest. CBS and NBC will each broadcast five Thursday Night Football games which will be simulcast on NFL Network and streamed to Amazon Prime members worldwide. NBC will also broadcast the Christmas Day game. CBS will start in Week 4 (Thursday, Sept. 28) when the Packers host the Chicago Bears. NBC’s Tri-Cast package begins in Week 10 (Thursday, Nov. 9) when the Seahawks visit the Arizona Cardinals. Additionally, NFL Network will also exclusively televise a seven-game schedule comprised of three Thursday Night Football games, three late-season Saturday contests and a Sunday morning London matchup.

The NFL’s 32 teams will each play 16 games over 17 weeks. Byes will begin in Week 5 and end in Week 11.

“Flexible scheduling” will be used in Weeks 10-15 and 17. Additionally, in Weeks 5-9, flexible scheduling may be used in no more than two weeks. In Weeks 5-15, the schedule lists the games tentatively set for Sunday Night Football on NBC. Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time. Flexible scheduling will not be applied to games airing on Thursday, Saturday or Monday nights. A flexible scheduling move would be announced at least 12 days before the game. For Week 17, the Sunday night game will be announced no later than six days prior to Dec. 31. The schedule does not list a Sunday night game in Week 17, but an afternoon game with playoff implications will be moved to that time slot. Flexible scheduling ensures quality matchups in all Sunday time slots in those weeks and gives “surprise” teams a chance to play their way into prime time.

The playoffs will include four division winners and two wild cards from each conference. The playoffs begin with Wild Card Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 6-7. The two division winners with the best records in each conference will earn first-round byes.  

Wild Card Weekend winners join the top two division champions in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 13-14. The AFC and NFC Championship Games will be played on Sunday, Jan. 21. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, Feb. 4 in Super Bowl LII at Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium (NBC). 

The NFL is the only sports league that presents all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets. All postseason games are televised nationally. 

Westwood One will broadcast on radio all NFL primetime games, the three Thanksgiving Day games and the entire NFL playoffs.

For ticket information, fans may visit www.nfl.com/tickets.