2017 NFL schedule release Eight teams face long road trips

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2017 NFL schedule release: Eight teams face long road trips Published: Apr 20, 2017 at 12:55 PM Senior National Columnist The making of the NFL schedule is an imperfect science. And on Thursday morning, Michael North, the NFL's senior director of broadcast planning and scheduling, was being reminded of just how imperfect it is, as he made calls to the teams to talk about their slates. "It's rare that you get to disappoint 32 billionaires and five television networks on the same day," he said. This year, the scheduling department churned through more "leaders" -- schedules they thought might be the winner -- than ever before. The one that was finally settled on emerged late in the proce s, and final approval only came in the last 48 hours. As always, there were the requests not to play in Florida in September, or in Green Bay in December, and concerns about the shared parking lots with baseball teams, but at least there was no to contend with this year. Still, the World Junior Hockey Championships in Buffalo in late December explain why the close with consecutive road games. Marathons in Detroit and Chicago, where the start and finish lines are in the parking lots of the football stadiums, had to be factored in, as did NASCAR races in Chicago, Charlotte, Phoenix and Kansas City. And three stadiums share with Major League Soccer teams -- another element to plan around. The most unusual situation arises in California, where the (the Coliseum at USC) and (the StubHub Center at Cal State-Dominguez Hills) play home games on college campuses, making Monday night and Thursday night games at home a no-no when cla ses are in se sion. There almost certainly will be an extra dose of attention paid to this lineup, after that accompanied the presidential election last year. The politicking for marquee games among network executives is nothing new, but ESPN executive Burke Magnus said at the CAA World Congre s of Sports this week that ESPN has been as engaged with the schedule makers as it has ever been, in hopes of swaying the Brian Anderson Jersey choices for "Monday Night Football." There are only so many , , , and games to go around, though. In the meantime, the league was able to accommodate two unusual requests: 1) The are celebrating their 50th anniversary season this year. To kick off the festivities, they get to open at home against division-rival Baltimore and they host the first "Thursday Night Football" game of the season against Houston. 2) It was brought to the attention of the scheduling department -- perhaps pointedly -- that of the last 13 times the have appeared on "Monday Night Football" in the last 10 years, 12 of those games were on the road. On Nov. 27, the will host the on Monday night. "Everybody is going to have to take a little bit of pain in the schedule," North said. "Hopefully no team takes too much." With that, some observations on 2017: 1) The Kickoff Game ... ... is not another rematch. Instead, it is the AFC West champion against the on Sept. 7 in Foxborough. Why not the , who are also on the ' home slate this year? Last year, the NFL opted to open the season with , a rematch of the 50. head coach Ron Kyle Barraclough Jersey Rivera made his displeasure known and he thought having to spend so much of the offseason revisiting a crushing lo s colored the entire 2016 season. But the primary reason the are not in the opener is the league wanted to showcase on Sunday night in Week 2, meaning they wouldn't put the in prime time on NBC in consecutive weeks to start the season. (The visit the Oct. 22 instead.) There was another team on the radar for the ' opener, though. It was the AFC South champion . And just like everybody else, the scheduling department was watching 's movements closely. "Had signed with Houston, we might have taken a different look at Houston at New England," North said. Likewise, had Romo signed with the , the at game, now slated for the late Sunday afternoon window of Week 2, might have been moved to prime time. 2) No jet lag When the NFL added regular-season games in London to its schedule beginning in 2007, it offered the lure of a bye week immediately after the trip to a suage teams' concerns about the toll of midseason, long-distance travel and multiple time-zone changes. But in 2016, the declined the bye immediately after their game in London, electing to take it later in the season, when coaches -- and players -- often prefer it to refresh for the stretch run. When the beat the at home seven days after the London game, a trend might have been born. This season, the , and -- three of the four teams that will play in London in the 9:30 a.m. ET slot (the are the fourth) -- elected to play a game the week after playing in London. The increased comfort level with some of the international games is a potentially important development as the NFL continues to look abroad for growth. "If you are going to play in London in the early window, you get back to your home stadium by midnight on Sunday night," North said. "To know you're forced into Week 4 bye as opposed to, ? Teams seem to have figured out how to handle London." 3) Don't unpack One of the reasons this schedule was the winner was there is no Week 4 bye. That's the good news. The bad: Eight teams will have three-game road trips, if you include the , who play twice on the road before hosting what is technically a home game in London. There were only two such road trips in last season's schedule, which is part of what made that one so attractive. Few things make teams more irate than the extended road trips. So, what happened? The ever-increasing complexity of the schedule is to blame. "All these stadium things, then you layer in international travel, four London games and a Mexico game, that's 10 teams playing international games, not just where are they the week of the international game, but where are they the week before and week after. We don't look at the total number of Blank Jersey three-game road trips. Technically, you could have 20 three-game road trips, as long as no team has more than one and each of the 20 was justifiable." Thankfully, there aren't 20. But bon voyage to the , , , , , , and . 4) Telling stretches Trying to divine the strength of schedule now seems ridiculous, when we don't even know some of the starting quarterbacks. But consider this: Both the and will play a total of eight games against 2016 playoff teams. That's the most in the NFL and a rough slate for two teams that will be heading into 2017 with rookie head coaches and, in the case of the , a new home field. (The also play eight games against playoff teams, but at least this isn't Andy Reid's first rodeo.) The and play each other in Denver on the first Monday night of the season. After that, the , whose opponents had a .578 winning percentage (the toughest mark in the league), face one of the season's most intriguing stretches: home versus the Oct. 15, then at the , at the on Monday night, at the on the short week and then home versus the . For the , that game in Denver starts their own critical run: at Denver, at Oakland (in Mexico City), home versus Miami, at Buffalo, at Miami on Monday night and then at Pittsburgh on the short week. Finally, if the are to return to the playoffs, the pa s defense that , better improve in a hurry. They face the , , and in the first five weeks, have the , , and in a row at midseason, and close with the , , , and . 5) Binge viewing The schedule makers didn't take offseason surgeries for or into consideration. But we did. Here are a few games to circle on your calendar: at (Week 1): It's the third straight year these rivals open against each other. Last year saw the debuts of , and the ' revamped defense. at (Week 1): This is the fourth straight year they meet. was the signal that the ' offense was back on track. Will be with the to try to get Green Bay track again? at and at (Week 1): To what extent will offseason shoulder surgeries impact the start of the season for and ? at (Week 7): Just how much psychological damage did inflict anyway? at in Mexico City (Week 11): With Marshawn Lynch for the , this game should provide a good measuring stick for how close the are to the top of the AFC mountain. at (Week 15): If this is the AFC Championship Game preview, nobody would be surprised. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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