After its usual further ado, the NFL indeed finally has released the full schedule for the 2024 season.
A slate of 544 regular-season and 13 postseason games will start Sept. 5 with the Ravens visiting the defending champion Chiefs in a rematch of last season’s AFC title game and conclude Feb. 9 with Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
There are five international games, including the first one ever in South America. There’s a Christmas Day double-header. On a, yes, Wednesday. And more intriguing revenge games than Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson and Saquon Barkley can shake a fist at.
Here’s one person’s top five games to watch next season:
1. Week 7: Chiefs at 49ers
Oct. 20, 3:25 p.m., FOX
Speaking of revenge games … They met in Super Bowl 55. They met again in Super Bowl 58. And there are numerous reasons – Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy, to name two — to believe they’ll meet again in Super Bowl 59. So, yeah, this is arguably the best game on the entire schedule when you consider the last time these teams met the game ended with Mahomes capping a 13-play, 75-yard drive with a touchdown pass in the final six seconds of overtime for a 25-22 Super Bowl victory. Every game the Chiefs play as they strive for the first threepeat in the Super Bowl era is going to be anticipated and scrutinized. The measuring stick for their chances of a fourth title in six years doesn’t get any bigger than this.
2. Week 9: Cowboys at Falcons
Nov. 3, Noon, FOX
Old not-so-friends Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer meet again, and, barring a tie, one of them is going to scream, “You like that!” with the biggest in-your-face-you-so-and-so smile of their careers. Zimmer – former Vikings coach, current Cowboys defensive coordinator and interim-head-coach-in-waiting if Mike McCarthy faceplants — inherits Micah Parsons and a top-5 defense. Heck, Zim has so much firepower, he might blitz Cousins during the coin toss. Cousins also is surrounded by talent, although it could have been more had Atlanta used the eighth overall pick to help him now, not replace him eventually. Zimmer and Cousins had one playoff season in four years together. The coach viewed the quarterback not as a savior, but as an $84 million albatross. Cousins, meanwhile, had his best season the year after Zim got fired. Duke it out, boys!
