Sliding Detroit into opening night at KC is a bold move by the league, though it makes a lot of sense from the standpoint that opening night will probably draw roughly the same ratings regardless of who’s playing (save for the Cowboys). Lions @ Chiefs wouldn’t be a ratings giant in other timeslots, especially if the Lions don’t play up to expectations, while the Bills, Bengals, and Eagles @ Chiefs games will be huge for ratings. Though I’m surprised they have the Bills and Bengals playing the Chiefs so late in the season (weeks 14 and 17) considering the likelihood that they meet again in the playoffs.
Detroit has 2 national games in the first 4 weeks, 3 in the first 8, and only one (@ Dallas) after that, excluding their usual Thanksgiving game. To me that says that FWIW, the schedule makers are not confident that they’re going to be good, so they’re hedging their bets in the event they’re bad, while also still getting ratings out of them while the hype is there early in the year. That might seem out there, but the same thing happened with the Broncos last year - they had 4 national games in the first 6 weeks, and only two after that (one of which got flexed out).
Same thing with the Jets to an extent - 9 of their first 11 are national games, and only 1 of their last 7 is. Even if they’re still bad, we’re going to be seeing a LOT of them, which might be kinda entertaining.
6 national games for the Bears. No thanks.
I tentatively have the Cowboys at 11-6, for I believe the 3rd straight year. Relatively tough start, could easily be 4-4 at midseason. Then a strong finish with losses only to Buffalo and somebody else.