The NFL schedule may have been released merely minutes ago, but did you know we’ve been aware of its contents since the end of the 2022 season? The NFL schedule release merely places all the games in order. In essence, if you’re a fan of The Great British Baking Show, we’re talking about the difference between the technical challenge, where ingredients are given sans concrete instructions, and the showstopper challenge, in which contestants know the exact time and measurement that every ingredient must be added. And they’re both great, right?
So, I didn’t even need to wait for the schedule to come out to tell me what the greatest games are going to be. If you are reading this within 15 minutes of the schedule being released and wondering how I wrote 2,000 words and then got them through Sports Illustrated’s editors so quickly, consider this your peek behind the curtain. For the most part, timing on the calendar is superfluous to what ends up making a game good (though there is one game on this list that made the cut thanks to its placement on a holiday). This will obviously be different for everyone. I could imagine a Raiders fan, for example, having nine of their 10 best games involving their team. But some of us don’t like being bored to death. These are the ones I have circled.
