When Does The NFL Schedule Come Out?

The regular season is over, the playoffs are over, and finally we have witnessed the end of yet another season worthy of enthralling football as the Super Bowl has also come to an end. That means it's now time to take it easy and rest right? Well for the players and coaches, that would be the case for the next few days, but what about the staff at the NFL? For them, work on the next season has just begun.

A small yet highly efficient team of members in the NFL office has already gotten together on Monday, the next day of the Super Bowl to get cracking on the upcoming season’s schedule. The NFL schedule is a highly complicated process that, even though processed on the computer, still requires a lot of planning, effort, and thought process by humans.

Creating the perfect schedule is the culmination of weeks and weeks of hard work, sleepless nights, and inspection of the thousands of possible schedules that the computer has churned out. But why is this process so complicated you may ask?

What makes the NFL Schedule complex?

First of all, it is important to understand that the league is dependent on several factors which need to be assessed before work can even begin on processing the schedule. For instance, the league needs to schedule 17 games for 32 teams that consist of home and away games. For this, the league needs to have the availability of all the stadiums throughout the NFL season. On top of that, the league needs to consider the travel woes, and any situations that may limit or restrict a game being played in a city on a particular day. Furthermore, the same process is followed for the games that will be held at international venues.

In addition to this, the league needs to consider games that could be held on potential holidays such as Thanks giving Day and Christmas Day if possible. Then, the team of members have to consider which games would make the best options for prime time slots and get in touch with their service partners accordingly. There are games which have more significance due to the rivalry status and once in a while there are games which feature great quarterback duels, legendary players against their former teams, and more. Figuring out the perfect spot for all these situations is not the easiest task in the world.

When is the NFL Schedule released?

Typically, the months of April and May have seen the release of the NFL schedule each year. For the most part, the last few years the league has released the schedule in the first or second week of May, and on Thursdays.

Once upon a time, the NFL’s schedule release was hardly of any importance or fervor. However, nowadays much more interest is gathering in the release as people are discussing the upcoming matchups to a greater degree. Sports media is also able to generate more content and talking points revolving around the latest schedule.

The league releases its full schedule mostly on Thursday night, but the individual team schedules are already sent to the franchises on Wednesday morning so that they can plan out how to release their own schedules to their fans. Franchises are also able to set up an event and launch their social media campaigns.

2023 NFL Schedule release

The 2023 NFL schedule was released by the league on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The opening game for the 2023 season will feature the Detroit Lions at the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium on September 7 as a Thursday night kickoff. The postseason will officially get underway from January 14, 2024 with the Wild Card Round, and the season will come to an end on February 11 with Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.