The 2024/25 NFL schedule begins on September 5 with Week 1.
As usual, the opening game will be played by the reigning Super Bowl champions in a home game. That will be the Kansas City Chiefs. They will face the Baltimore Ravens in a rematch of the AFC Championship Game.
What does the 2024/25 NFL schedule look like?
All games including the International Games including the NFL Munich 2024 game, the games on Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as the explanation of the rather complicated NFL schedule composition
NFL Schedule 2024, Week 1
The 2024/25 NFL schedule begins on September 5 with Week 1. The final round of the NFL regular season schedule takes place on the weekend of January 4-6.
The start of the 2024 NFL Playoffs is scheduled for January 11-13. Three rounds are scheduled until the grand final.
The Super Bowl 2025 – the glamorous final game for the NFL championship – will take place on February 9 in New Orleans
The reigning Super Bowl champions traditionally kick off Week 1 of the 2024 NFL schedule with a home game on Thursday night (September 6, 2:15 a.m. German time) in the “Thursday Night Game”.
The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Baltimore Ravens in the season opener.
The very next day sees the first international game on the 2024 NFL schedule, with the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo.
The action continues as usual on Sunday from 19:00 with eight games. Four games are scheduled for Sunday evening from 22:00. The “Sunday Night Game” with Detroit Lions vs. Los Angeles Rams follows in the night from Sunday to Monday.
Week 1 of the 2024 NFL schedule ends with the Monday Night Game, which is San Francisco 49ers vs. New York Jets
NFL Schedule 2024 – all dates of the regular season
NFL Schedule – Dates of the International Games 2024
In the 2024/25 season there will be “International Games” again – five of them!
Three International Games will be held in London (Great Britain), one in Munich (Germany) and one in Rio (Brazil) in the 2024/25 season.
London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – the only purpose-built NFL stadium outside the USA – will once again be the venue for two international games. The third London game on the 2024 NFL schedule will take place at Wembley Stadium.
In Germany – after two games were played in Frankfurt last year – it is now Munich’s turn again.
And then there is also a premiere on the 2024 NFL schedule with the NFL Brazil Game – the first NFL game in South America! This will take place at the Corinthians Sao Paulo soccer stadium
Which teams and pairings on the 2024 NFL schedule will have to plan a trip from the USA has been determined with the release of the schedule.
The Carolina Panthers are coming to Munich in the Allianz Arena. The game date is November 10, with the New York Giants as their opponents.
The Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars will travel to London to play two London Games on the 2024 NFL schedule.
The South American premiere in Sao Paulo will be played by the Philadelphia Eagles against the Green Bay Packers on September 6.
The game in Brazil also brings a curious change. For the first time in 50 years, a game at the start of the season will be played on Friday (American time). Normally, the season always starts with the traditional Opening Game on Thursday, the big game on Sunday and the Monday Night Game.
NFL 2024 schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas
The annual tripleheader on Thanksgiving (November 28, 2024) will once again involve big-name teams on the 2024 NFL schedule. And it will also be a holiday for football fans!
This season’s NFL schedule will once again feature three Thanksgiving games. There is also sure to be another “Black Friday Game” – as was the case for the first time last season.
So far, Black Friday has been known primarily for bargains when shopping. But in 2023, the Friday one day after Thanksgiving also went down in the history books as an NFL matchday for the first time.
NFL game schedule 2024 for Christmas & New Year’s Eve
Last year, three games took place on US Christmas Day, which was on a Monday. These three games were among the five most-watched NFL games on Christmas Day since 1988.
The NFL has announced that there will be two Christmas Day games on the 2024 NFL schedule.
Although December 25 falls on a Wednesday this year, the NFL will have two games played on that day.
This was announced by the league in the form of Hans Schroeder, NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution, at the Annual League Meeting at the end of March. This will be a first in the history of the National Football League, as none of the previous Christmas Games have been played on a Wednesday.
Which Christmas games are on the 2024 NFL schedule?
Two games will be played on December 25. The first is Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, the second is between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.
Special feature: Both games will be broadcast exclusively by Netflix!
The mode for the 2024/25 NFL schedule
The NFL schedule for the 2024/25 season also consists of a total of 18 matchdays, with each team having one bye week. This gives each team 17 games in the season
This is how the NFL schedule with 17 games is created:
● The four teams from a division (→ The 8 NFL divisions) always play one home and one away game against each other ⇒ 6 games
● Each year, a team from one division plays all four teams from another division in its own conference. (In a three-year cycle, all divisions from a conference are played through) ⇒ 4 games
● According to a 4-year rotation principle, each team plays once against all four teams from another division of the other conference. Two games at home and two away. ⇒ 4 games
● In addition, the NFL schedule also includes games against teams from the same conference that finished in the same place in the standings the previous year – once at home and once away (except for the division that the team is already playing against based on the current NFL schedule). ⇒ 2 games
● The 17th game is a game against another team from the other conference that is in the same position in its division. The division that will be played against anyway is excluded, and there is also a rotation between the other divisions. ⇒ 1 game
This NFL schedule guarantees that all teams play every other team at least once every four years and must play in every other team’s stadium at least once every eight years
