The NFL's decision to put the Kansas City Chiefs in primetime windows the first two weeks of the season wasn't meant to be a hint on how fast Patrick Mahomes will recover from knee surgery.
Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee on Dec. 14 and has said his goal is to be back in time for Week 1 of the season. The Chiefs host the Denver Broncos on "Monday Night Football" to open the season on Sept. 14 and then play Indianapolis at home on Sunday night in Week 2.
“We didn’t know anything more than anyone else,” NFL executive Hans Schroeder said Friday.
Coach Andy Reid said on NFL Network on Friday that the NFL didn't talk to him about Mahomes' status, but is encouraged by what he has seen so far early in the offseason program.
“He’s doing great right now and that’s kind of how you gotta go about this,” Reid said. “People go ‘well, he’s ahead of schedule.’ Who made the schedule? Everybody’s different, let’s just take it day by day. Nobody is spending more time than he is rehabbing, he spends seven hours here going through it. He hasn’t missed a day and he wants more, all the things that are Patrick Mahomes. Let’s see where we are at as we go forward as we get a little bit closer to the game.”
Schroeder said he was “excited” about Reid's comments and said that the Chiefs remained a popular team among the broadcasters as evidenced by their six primetime games, including a Thanksgiving night showdown against Buffalo that is typically one of the most-anticipated matchups of the season.
Kansas City, which went 6-11 and missed the playoffs last season after making three straight Super Bowl trips, also has five additional games slotted in the high-profile late afternoon Sunday doubleheader window.
“The Chiefs are an incredible story,” Schroeder said. “They’re one of the most popular teams in the league right now. They’ve been on an incredibly successful run for a number of years now, and have built a hugely popular fan base. We went into the year planning to play the Chiefs in the same number of windows. We didn’t know anything more than then you did, but we’re certainly hoping Patrick would be back Week 1. ... We felt really good about it and certainly feel better after seeing Andy’s comments this morning with how Patrick’s rehab’s going.”
More Wednesday openers
With Labor Day falling later this year and the NFL wanting to play a Week 1 game in Australia, the opener was moved to a Wednesday for the second time in league history.
That might not be a one-off.
The league announced a new deal with Netflix through 2029 that guarantees the streamer a Week 1 game in addition to the traditional opening game on NBC for the defending Super Bowl champion. Schroeder said that could lead to a Wednesday start to the season again.
The 2026 season opens on Wednesday Sept. 9 with Seattle hosting New England on NBC, followed by a game on Netflix the next night in the United States between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. That game will kick off on Friday morning in Australia.
“I think you’ll see us certainly playing on a couple nights, weekday nights to start the year going forward,” Schroeder said.
The NFL played an international game in Week 1 on a Friday night the previous two seasons but can't play again on Friday night in Week 1 until 2029 because of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that prohibits the league from televising games on Friday night starting with the second Friday of September. The Friday of Week 1 will be on the second Friday of September again in both 2027 and 2028.
The only other time before this season that the first game of the NFL season was played on a Wednesday came in 2012 when the Dallas Cowboys visited the New York Giants. The game was moved from its usual Thursday spot that year because President Barack Obama was set to speak that night at the Democratic National Convention.
Travel mitigation
The opening game in Australia gave a heavy load in terms of travel to both the 49ers and Rams.
San Francisco will set a record this season with about 38,000 miles traveled thanks to the far-flung opener and a “home” game in Mexico City in Week 11 against Minnesota. Los Angeles is close behind with about 35,000 miles traveled this upcoming season.
The two teams will return home on Friday Sept. 11, giving them a little extra time before playing Week 2. The Rams get an extra day because they will host a Monday night game against the New York Giants before back-to-back road games at Denver and Philadelphia.
Niners coach Kyle Shanahan publicly complained about the heavy travel at the league meetings earlier this offseason and general manager John Lynch said the NFL would make some considerations for them.
San Francisco will play three straight home games following the Week 1 trip and won’t leave the Pacific Time Zone again until a trip to Atlanta in Week 7. The Niners also avoided having games on either Thanksgiving or Christmas after playing on both holidays in 2023.
“I’m sure wave a magic wand, they would move a game or two on their schedule,” NFL VP of NFL broadcast planning Mike North said. “But I assume the same is true for the other 31 teams as well. We were sensitive, we were cognizant, and think we landed in a fair place, not just for the Niners and the Rams, but hopefully for everybody.”
Not ready for primetime
The days of every NFL team being guaranteed a primetime game are in the past with five teams failing to get a game in one of those high-profile windows this season.
Tennessee, Miami, Arizona, the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets were all given no primetime games in the initial schedule. Those teams are five of the bottom six in terms of odds to win the Super Bowl this season after the Dolphins won seven games last season and the other four teams went 3-14.
Barring one of the teams getting flexed into a primetime window late in the season, this would be the first time since 2011 that five teams didn't get a single primetime game.
None of those five teams has an island game in another window either.
Even the addition of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza wasn't enough to get the Raiders into primetime.
This marks the second straight season that the team that picked a quarterback No. 1 overall didn't make primetime with the Titans getting no games last season after taking Cam Ward first overall.
“Not to be flippant, but we don’t draft our way into primetime. We play our way into primetime,” North said.
Rest disparity
The issue of rest disparity has gotten a lot of attention in recent years even though the NFL says its data shows the focus is overblown.
This season has a few major outliers with both the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia playing four games against teams coming off bye weeks, while 14 teams don't do it even once. The Raiders and Los Angeles Rams each have three games against teams coming off a bye.
The Chargers will have 22 fewer days of rest than their opponents this season, the biggest discrepancy since the 2012 Eagles were at minus-23, according to ESPN.
“Rest disparity is not a thing,” North said. “You do not have a competitive advantage when you’re coming off your bye. You certainly don’t have a competitive advantage when you’re one day or two day or three days more well rested. If that data suggests that there’s a there, we will adjust.”
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