Pittsburgh Steelers executives aren't the only one eagerly waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide whether he plans to play football this season. NFL schedulers are also very closely following Rodgers Saga.
Rodgers has talked about signing with Pittsburgh, but if he wants to play in 2025, he hasn't made the final decision, putting the Steelers at the top of the depth list with Mason Rudolph and rookie Will Howard.
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The league still offers the Steelers four prime time games and an independent international game in Week 4 in a schedule released Wednesday, and regardless of Rodgers’ decision, the team’s strong following and successful history under coach Mike Mike Tomlin will make them an attractive team on the network.
"We're trying to play in the middle," NFL program executive Mike North said Thursday. "We don't know anything more than anyone else. The schedule was built for coach Tomlin and the Steelers. If Aaron decides to play, that could make the Steelers' game even more fun."
North said the opening game for the Steelers against Rodgers, one of the former teams of Rodgers, is likely not going to appear at 1 p.m. in the EDT area window, and the league will surely be on the way.
But the league secured a potential game between Rogers and the Green Bay Packers (he won four MVPs and a Super Bowl, both getting prime time treatments in week 8 of NBC Sunday night, rather than letting it squeeze into the afternoon window.
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"For example, if it landed on a Sunday afternoon, that would be the main story of the day, Aaron's first game against his old team," North said. "So put it in the national window, if Aaron was a quarterback, that's a great story. If Aaron wasn't a quarterback, it's still the Packers-Steelers Sunday Night Football in Week 8. It sounds like a football game."
Young QB gains high-profile games
The success of the rookie quarterback class last season won eight independent games on a timeline led by Washington's Jayden Daniels, including five in prime time and three in the double window later in the afternoon.
The other five first-round QBs in the 2024 draft also received high-profile matches, with JJ McCarthy and Vikings winning seven independent games, including Monday's opener against Caleb Williams and Chicago, as well as two international games.
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Michael Penix and Atlanta had six independent games, Williams, Bears and Bo Nix each had five games, and Drake Maye and New England won three.
"When we met with all the broadcast partners at the beginning of the process, they listed 'Hey, here are some of the games and some teams that we are most interested in,'" North said. "Obviously, you already have a healthy dose of Dallas and Kansas City there. But in the larger national TV windows, the Lions in Washington, Washington, Denver's clear Lions."
NFL Go to Head with CFP
For the second consecutive year, the NFL will play against college football on the day the college football playoffs scheduled for the third-finals. The NFL gave Fox a double, playing the NFC Championship game between Philadelphia and Washington, and an NFC North Division showdown between Green Bay and Chicago.
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NFL executive Hans Schroeder said the league has no plans to push the game away even if the CFP is in place, saying the NFL played on the third Saturday of 37 of the past 40 seasons.
“That was an NFL day,” he said. “We think our fans love football that day. We love to host football games later this year. At the time we were chasing the playoffs in the playoffs. That’s the point. You have to ask the CFP, ask the CFP how they think about the future.”
Fair or foul
As each team’s opponent is determined by a formula, it has been known since the end of last season, and a lot of the focus on the program release date is on other factors.
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More attention has been received in recent years, with some teams being forced to play more games against teams that play bye bye or Thursday night than others.
The NFL said there was only one slight advantage for teams that had found more rest. This means that while it is a factor in choosing a schedule, it is just one of many products, including getting the best game in the best TV window, stadium availability, balancing network partners, international games, games between weeks and long trips.
With the rest gap in each of the last two seasons being worse than MINUS-20, the San Francisco 49ers have played against the team and overall rest advantage in this season.
"We certainly hope we found a schedule this year, which is not a significant negative difference for 49 people," North said. "We happened to do it. But, I wouldn't say that if we thought the time for the best schedule overall was MINUS-8 or MINUS-10 or MINUS-12, we couldn't play it. It would be a factor, but maybe not a factor that was not a bad one."
The Raiders have the worst difference in rest breaks in the 17-day season, with Washington being the only four-game team to meet his opponents.
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AP NFL: