NFL free agency is not over, but the tentpole opening of the event is officially in the rear view mirror. The 2018 NFL Draft is the next big personnel event, but next big tentpole event for the NFL is the schedule release. The preseason schedule will be released in early April, and the regular season schedule will be released in about one month.
The league has built up the regular season schedule release into a big deal, with NFL Network and ESPN putting together multi-hour shows to discuss it. While this is ridiculous, many of us still get sucked in by it. It will happen a little over a week before the NFL Draft, and we’ll all be ready as rumors start to percolate.
The big question for most of us is how many prime time games the San Francisco 49ers will get for the coming season. Last year, the 49ers had one prime time game, their Thursday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams. The previous year, they had two prime time games, including the season opener Monday Night Football game against the Rams, and TNF against the Arizona Cardinals.
The 49ers should end up with more than two prime time games, and it would not be at all surprising to see them end up near the maximum of five. They’ll have their required TNF game, which often ends up being a divisional game. But regardless of that, there are several intriguing matchups to consider for prime time. There are several intriguing QB matchups, including Jimmy Garoppolo vs. Aaron Rodgers, and then vs. Pat Mahomes. You could make arguments for both 49ers-Rams and 49ers-Seahawks getting prime time billing, so maybe one gets TNF and one gets another slot.
What kind of predictions do you see for the final schedule? One that could be fun would be rolling the dice on 49ers-Rams in Week 17 when maybe the division title is on the line!
Home: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks
Away: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks