In its ongoing effort to coordinate a notable event in every month of the offseason, the NFL is expected to release the 2023 schedule on May 11. One sign the league is getting close to settling on a plan: fresh off the NFL Draft, commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to meet with scheduling guru Howard Katz on Monday, ESPN reported Sunday.
Once finalized, the schedule will dictate which teams play in the NFL’s international series.
The Chiefs will host a game in Germany — either Munich or Frankfurt — and are expected to play either the Bears or the Lions. If the Bears go, it would be their fourth-ever European trip and the first since they played the Raiders in London in 2019. The Lions haven’t played overseas since 2015.
Bears chairman George McCaskey, who is on the NFL’s international committee, said last month that the overseas series games would be rolled out separately — probably a day or two before the rest of the regular-season schedule.
“The schedule’s supposed to come out in mid-May and they’re talking about announcing the visiting teams in the international games shortly before the schedule comes out,” he said at the NFL’s annual meeting.
The five international games — three in London and two in Germany — will all be hosted by AFC teams, as they have one extra home game in the NFL’s 17-game schedule. The Bears will host eight games at Soldier Field.
