For decades, Thanksgiving has beena huge day for the NFL. And it keeps getting bigger, in terms of adding more days and games to extend the holiday.
The NFL held only two games on Thanksgiving for many years, then in 2006 added a third game in prime time, which has remained a part of the schedule. In 2023, a game on Black Friday was added, and that has stuck as well.
This season, the NFL is expanding the Thanksgiving schedule a bit more. There will be a game on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. That means five games between Wednesday and Friday. Hope you don’t have many family or travel plans, because the games the NFL scheduled are tremendous. On the whole, it’s arguably the best Thanksgiving lineup the NFL has set.
Every game is compelling, from Wednesday through Friday.
Thanksgiving eve: Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams
The NFL pushing this game as a “Thanksgiving eve” game is odd because “Thanksgiving eve” isn’t really a thing. Anyway, it’s another way for the NFL to fill up the calendar, and their first foray into the day before Thanksgiving is a premier matchup. The Rams and Packers are both coming off playoff appearances. The Packers, with Micah Parsons, looked like a Super Bowl contender early last season, the Rams were a Super Bowl contender for most of last season. The NFL usually makes a splash if it introduces a new day on the calendar for games, and it did with this matchup. And it leads into a great tripleheader on Thursday.
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Thanksgiving: Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions
As the Lions improved the past few seasons, the calls for them to not host the Thanksgiving opener anymore have subsided. Detroit is now a fantastic draw for the NFL on Thanksgiving. That and atelevision coverage change— allowing networks to swap AFC and NFC games — gives the league some flexibility when it comes to scheduling. The NFL had scheduled divisional games for the Lions each of the last three seasons, and four of the last five. They stuck with that theme this season, giving them a fun matchup against the Bears. That was the matchup for the first game of Thanksgiving in 2024, and the Bears nearly upset the Lions, running out of time at the end in a 23-20 loss. Bears coach Matt Eberflus was fired after a clock management fiasco at the end of the game, leading to Chicago hiring Ben Johnson, who was the Lions’ offensive coordinator in that game.
Thanksgiving: Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys on Thanksgiving is a ratings monster for the NFL. Last season, 57.2 million viewers watched Dallas beat the Kansas City Chiefs. That was themost-watched regular season game in NFL history.
The NFL seems like it wants to break that record. The league could have picked just about any team for this game and got monster ratings, but it chose one of the league’s biggest draws. If the Cowboys improve and are in the NFC East race, this game could surpass last year’s record for viewership. And from a football aspect, it’s an easy sell as long as Dallas is improved.
Thanksgiving night: Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills
Hope you’re not tired for the night game, because the NFL gave us a great one to cap the day. The Chiefs and Bills have developed a rivalry, with Patrick Mahomes on one side and Josh Allen on the other. The two teams have had some classic games. This one, in the Bills’ new Highmark Stadium, should be another fantastic one. Considering there are four playoff teams from last season on Thanksgiving, and the other two are the Chiefs and Cowboys, on paper this three-game slate might be the best we’ve seen on the NFL’s big holiday.
Black Friday: Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers
The Black Friday game is no throwaway this season. The Broncos and Steelers both won their divisions last season. There are some questions about whether the Steelers can maintain that, with Mike McCarthy replacing Mike Tomlin at head coach and Aaron Rodgers’ situation in limbo, but it has been a long time since Pittsburgh was bad. And if this is the fifth-best matchup of the three days, we’re doing pretty good.