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The NFL has announced its full 18-week schedule for the upcoming 2023 regular season, so every team in the league now knows what’s next. For some, this path involves a large number of games in front of the whole country as they take place in a prime-time window on either Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights. However, there are also teams that the NFL is not currently putting on such a high pedestal. Four teams didn’t get a single prime-time game this season: Colts, Cardinals, Texans, and Falcons.
What do these teams have in common? They were all in the NFL draft top 10 just a few weeks ago, which means they weren’t particularly competitive in 2022. Collectively, these teams were 18-48-2 last season, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case in the league, and I expect that to change much in the coming year.
While none of these teams currently have a prime-time game scheduled, that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t end up there. The NFL has the ability to customize games throughout the year. For Sunday Night Football, a team can be fielded twice between weeks 5 and 10 until prime time. From weeks 11 through 17, the NFL may adjust teams at its discretion. In addition to Sunday night, this year the NFL also added the ability to reschedule Monday Night Football games from weeks 12 through 17. So if any of these teams make the playoffs or take part in a high-profile game, they could end up in a national window.
The Colts and Texans are an interesting watch this season after both franchises picked quarterbacks in the top five of the NFL Draft. Houston picked former Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud as the No. 2 overall pick and Indy brought Florida’s Anthony Richardson on board with the No. 4 pick. If one or both of these players came on stage as a freshman, it could attract the attention of a national audience. As for the Cardinals, it’s a team in transition as they sign first-year head coach Jonathan Gannon and quarterback Kyler Murray is still recovering from his cruciate ligament rupture. So it’s not surprising that the NFL doesn’t support them in this period.
Meanwhile, the Falcons are arguably the most interesting team in this group not to have a prime-time game. Atlanta’s winning tally for the 2023 season currently stands at eight wins by Caesars Sportsbook, which is much higher than those three other clubs and higher than teams like the Bears and Patriots, which have multiple prime-time slots. Of course, Chicago and New England bring larger audiences given their turbulent histories, but from a football perspective, there’s a good case for the Falcons to have at least one game ahead of the country. They currently sit second in odds at the NFC South at +260 behind the Saints (+115). If they’re stuck on the chart toward the end of the year, it wouldn’t be shocking if the NFL pressured them into prime time.