Key takeaways from the NFL's 2025 schedule release

The NFL officially unveiled the 2025 schedule Wednesday night. Opponents have been locked in since the end of last season, but the layout of the games matters, too.

Here are a few key takeaways from the announcement.

Starting with a bang

The Super Bowl champion Eagles hosting the division-rival Cowboys in the Thursday night opener was a no-brainer. And that's only the appetizer for what figures to be an electric opening weekend.

The rest of the prime-time matchups are every bit as good as you'd expect. The Chargers always play the Chiefs well, and they'll get their shot at the defending AFC champs on Friday night in Brazil. The Ravens get an immediate opportunity for playoff redemption against the Bills on Sunday night, while Ben Johnson and the new-look Bears are immediately put to the test in hosting the Vikings on Monday night.

Lions-Packers is the main draw of the Sunday afternoon slate, but there are also some less obvious games with some juicy storylines. The Jets open the season against the Steelers, who are still expected to sign Aaron Rodgers. If the future Hall of Famer's disaster tenure in New York wasn't enough to set the stage for that one, his candid recollection of a meeting with new head coach Aaron Glenn should do the trick. Consider it a two-sided revenge game.

Elsewhere, the Patriots kick off the Mike Vrabel era at home against the Raiders. Tom Brady will be in the broadcast booth somewhere else, but Las Vegas opening the year in New England after an offseason in which the organization was reshaped in his vision is a pretty cool tidbit. New (old) Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels also gets to kick off his latest go-round in Foxboro against the team that fired him after just 25 games as head coach.

Week 1 can't get here soon enough.

Welcome to the NFL

Speaking of Week 1, it's worth pointing out that Cam Ward is getting a particularly tough draw to start his NFL career.

A matchup with the Broncos' defense would've been difficult enough last year, when they finished as the NFL's No. 1 defense in EPA/play, according to TruMedia. That unit only got better this offseason. Ex-49ers Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga can be true game-changers when healthy.

And while most were expecting Denver to upgrade the offense in the first round of this year's draft, passing on Jahdae Barron at No. 20 wasn't going to fly. The versatile Texas defensive back, fresh off a Jim Thorpe Award, now joins Patrick Surtain Jr. and Riley Moss in rounding out the league's most exciting young cornerback room.

A date with this defense could be a rude introduction to the NFL for the Titans' No. 1 overall pick.

Early Super Bowl rematch

Schedule-makers wasted no time getting us a Super Bowl rematch, as the Chiefs will host the Eagles in Week 2. Oddly, it'll be a late-afternoon game instead of a prime-time affair.

Kansas City will be eager to get one back after an embarrassing result on football's biggest stage. The Eagles losing some of the key defensive-line pieces that terrorized Patrick Mahomes will surely be a factor here, as would the healthy return of Chiefs wideout Rashee Rice.

But Philadelphia still has the most talented roster in football, and it may not be all that close. A result similar to the Super Bowl, this time at Arrowhead, would be quite the statement to that end.

Good luck, Giants

The Giants surprised many by keeping Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen heading into this season. That's how bad they've been in the two years since making an unlikely playoff appearance. Based on this schedule, they may still be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to securing their futures in New York.

We already knew New York was going to have the most difficult schedule in football. But the way this thing is laid out, it's tough to pick out many wins over the first few months of the season.

Could the Giants surprise us? Sure. And a productive offseason does give them some hope heading into the future. But a schedule like this won't do them any favors in the short term, and it's easy to see how that could eventually lead to the turnover we were all expecting in January.

Now or never

The Bengals have been notoriously slow starters throughout Zac Taylor's six years as head coach, posting a 1-11 record across the first two weeks of the season. The only win was an overtime victory over the Vikings back in 2021.

Kicking off the 2025 campaign with games against the Browns and Jaguars should give Cincinnati every opportunity to buck that trend, but the same could've been said about previous cupcake matchups. Last year's season-opening loss to a dreadful Patriots team was ultimately the difference in the Bengals missing out on the playoffs despite a hot finish.

Starting fast will be especially important this fall, as Cincy's next four games come against the Vikings, Broncos, Lions, and Packers. And three of the four are on the road. If Taylor can't start fast this year, it's probably time to find a coach who can.

We are thankful

The NFL had been on a bit of a cold streak with its scheduled Thanksgiving games. Recent head-scratchers include the post-Drew Brees Saints getting blown out at home against the Bills in 2021 and the pre-Jayden Daniels Commanders barely putting up a fight in Dallas in 2023, and the Giants had no business on that stage last year. We'll go ahead and blame the NFL for forcing the nation to start their holiday festivities by watching Matt Eberflus' historically inept clock management, even if the Bears were supposed to be mildly interesting in 2024.

Anything can happen, but the on-paper matchups suggest that there won't be many fans prioritizing naps this year. Packers-Lions is a great way to start the day, Chiefs-Cowboys is as marquee as marquee gets, and Bengals-Ravens always provides fireworks. And then we get Bears-Eagles on Black Friday, putting one of the league's most exciting up-and-coming teams against the defending champs.

The Cowboys also getting some Christmas Day shine is probably a little much for the average fan to stomach, but it's tough to argue with featuring America's Team against the suddenly fun Commanders. Lions-Vikings in the late afternoon slot should have plenty of playoff implications, and the same can be said about Broncos-Chiefs as the night cap. All in all, no complaints about the holiday scheduling this year.

WTFalcons?

Counting up prime-time games is one of the big draws of schedule release day. Fans want to feel as though their favorite team is getting an appropriate amount of respect on a national level, and it's always good to make sure that we're not getting too much of a team that doesn't deserve it.

The Chiefs lead the way with seven such games this year. Fair enough. The Cowboys have six, because of course they do. And then there's a big group of teams with five. The Eagles, Lions, Commanders, Bills, Chargers, and 49ers all make sense for various reasons. The Dolphins earning a spot in that group is pretty weird. The Falcons doing so is downright bizarre.

In all fairness, this has the potential to be a pretty fun season for Atlanta. The front office was aggressive in addressing the defense, and it's possible Michael Penix Jr. has the offense poised to take off in Year 2. But this is the Falcons we're talking about here - a team that hasn't won double-digit games since 2017. Would it not be wise to wait and see if they can actually take the next step before penciling them in for two Sunday night games, two Monday night games, and a Thursday nighter?

If we're in the business of trying to anticipate breakouts, the Bears only getting three prime-time games seems quite strange in comparison.

Vikings go back to back

The NFL's international slate continues to expand, with five different countries hosting a total of seven games this year. Everyone is used to the one-off matchups by now. The Vikings playing consecutive weeks across the pond is a new one.

Minnesota will meet Pittsburgh in Dublin in Week 4 before making the quick trip to London for a game against Cleveland. On first glance, it seems like a brutal schedule for the Vikings. But we should note they're officially the visiting team for both games. That means two of their nine road contests are at a neutral site, and they don't lose any of their eight home games.

Plus, if you're going to make the trip across that many time zones, you might as well get multiple games out of it, right? If nothing else, that should give the Vikings a major advantage over the Browns in Week 5. From there, they'll come home to a bye week before heading into a gauntlet stretch: vs. Eagles, at Chargers, at Lions, vs. Ravens.

Late-night doubleheaders

As someone who'll take all the standalone games we can get, it gives me great pleasure to share that the NFL is bringing back the late-night Monday games for the first time since 2020.

Two of the four Monday night doubleheaders on the schedule will have kickoffs at 7 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. ET. Chargers-Raiders is in that extra-late spot in Week 2, while Texans-Seahawks gets it in Week 7.

The other two doubleheaders are sticking to the NFL's more recent format, with kickoffs an hour apart, so this isn't exactly a full shift back to the old days. Perhaps it's the NFL's way of testing which way works best for viewership. The late-night spot does complicate scheduling matters, as it requires the home team to be on the west coast. But the additional standalone is a great way to cap the week. Plus, overlapping Monday night contests defeat the purpose of prime-time games, don't they?

Chargers' social team undefeated

Is the NFL's annual schedule release a little overhyped? Probably. It's not like we didn't already know who everyone was playing. But this is also the Super Bowl for social media teams around the league. Team announcements are getting more and more creative every year. And while this is hardly an official count, the Chargers have to be the five-time defending champs at this point.

This year's schedule reveal was done in Minecraft. Familiarity with the video game is not a prerequisite for enjoyment here. Pay close enough attention and you'll see some truly incredible potshots taken at each of L.A.'s opponents.

Dan Wilkins is theScore's senior NFL writer.