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NFL owners approve flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football

Matt Connollyby:Matt Connolly05/22/23

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More changes are coming to the NFL schedule for this upcoming season.

NFL owners have approved flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football, according to multiple reports, including one from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The change will allow the NFL to switch into better games on Thursday Night Football for Week 13-17, if needed.

Games currently scheduled to take place on Thursday Night Football on those weeks are: Seahawks at Cowboys, Patriots at Steelers, Chargers at Raiders, Saints at Rams and Jets at Browns.

According to Schefter, only two flexes are allowed. The flexes must be announced 28 days in advance.

While flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football was ultimately approved, not all teams voted yes for the move.

The report from Schefter states that the Jets, Packers, Bears, Raiders, Lions, Bengals and Steelers all voted no.

Another new change previously announced that is coming to the schedule is that teams can be on Thursday Night Football twice. NFL games have been played on Thursday night since 2006 but previously teams could only appear once per season.

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A couple of other changes coming include that not all teams will have a game in primetime and games won’t belong to certain networks anymore. All games will be free agents, whereas in the past, NFC games were on Fox and AFC games were on CBS.

Green Bay to host 2025 NFL draft

In addition to flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football, there was plenty of other NFL news that broke on Monday. One of the biggest pieces of news is that the Green Bay Packers will host the NFL draft in 2025.

It will take place inside and around Lambeau Field, one of the league’s most iconic stadiums. It will also spill into Titletown, the area surrounding the stadium.

Kansas City hosted the 2023 NFL Draft. Next year’s event is heading to Detroit.

“The Draft has become a prominent offseason event hosted in different cities with spectacular locations across the country, and we are excited to work with the Packers and Discover Green Bay to bring the 2025 NFL Draft to Green Bay and iconic Lambeau field,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “With the help of numerous local partners on the ground, our prospects and fans will be treated to an incredible week-long experience that shows off the city of Green Bay and the state of Wisconsin.”

Over the years, the NFL has continuing selected new sites to host the premier offseason event. Because of the popularity, it doesn’t appear the league will switch away from this approach anytime soon.