The full 2024 NFL schedule is now out, and it’s always fun to dive in and circle games on the calendar. These are some of the best 2024 NFL matchups, with a few honorable mentions first.
Honorable mentions:
Week 13: Raiders vs. Chiefs (Black Friday) | Week 16 Saturday
While the Raiders might struggle if the quarterback situation—which many believe is the worst in the league—doesn’t hold up for a long season, I love the fundamentally-sound style of play Antonio Pierce brought to Vegas as the interim head coach last season. After upsetting the Chiefs at Arrowhead last Christmas, they’ll look to do the same on Black Friday.
And I also want to give recognition to the Week 16 schedule of Texans-Chiefs and Steelers-Ravens—coinciding with three College Football Playoff games. Football fans will have to have multiple screens going on December 21, 2024, which should be a blast.
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Week 1: Rams vs. Lions (SNF)
Both a second reunion and a playoff rematch between quarterbacks and their former teams in a trade that’s worked out well for both sides, Rams-Lions on Sunday Night Football to cap the season’s first full slate of games is an excellent draw for NBC. Detroit is fully behind their quarterback Jared Goff—who just received a massive four-year extension to remain with the franchise—and will create a rowdy environment for Los Angeles.
Week 15: Bills vs. Lions
Speaking of rowdy environments, a Week 15 battle between the Bills and the Lions will feature Bills Mafia taking on a championship-hopeful Detroit club in what could certainly be a Super Bowl preview. Buffalo will be ending a four-game stretch that includes matchups with the Chiefs, 49ers, and Rams before this, and playoff seeding in respective conferences could be at stake in mid-December.
Week 9: Texans vs. Jets (TNF, Halloween)
I like the holiday games, and we are lucky to have Halloween fall on a Thursday this year—with two strong teams on top of it. Like the Jets, Houston was banged up, but C.J. Stroud (10/23, 91 yards) struggled to get much of anything going versus New York in his matchup as a rookie last year (a 30-6 victory for the Jets), and he’ll no doubt be determined ahead of the rematch in 2024. Prime Video better bring the heat with their Halloween graphics and presentation.
Week 17: Lions vs. 49ers (MNF)
A repeat of last season’s NFC Championship Game, the Lions might be better equipped to deal with the Niners’ high-octane attack after the defensive additions made during free agency and in the draft. Detroit is my early pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, which explains three appearances for them in the top ten (and they also host their annual Thanksgiving game in Week 13).
Week 7: Chiefs vs. 49ers
The Super Bowl LVIII rematch takes place in the late-afternoon window on FOX with the greatest of all-time Tom Brady in the booth for his first season as a broadcaster. In addition to two Super Bowl showdowns, these two squads did also face off in the 2022 regular season (a dominant KC win), so it might actually be somewhat stale to some. But both teams are obviously extremely talented, well-coached, and among the Super Bowl favorites this season.
Week 17: Cowboys vs. Eagles
It’s been 20 years since the NFC East has had a repeat champion, and Week 17’s Cowboys-Eagles showdown could be huge in determining the division winner in 2024. A late-season matchup between Dallas and Philly in Philadelphia just feels right. Of course, many other divisional games also could have made the list.
Week 17: Ravens vs. Texans (Christmas Day)
A rematch from last January’s Divisional Round, Ravens-Texans will look a little different this time around with Stefon Diggs among the additions to Houston and Derrick Henry—who killed the Texans during his time with the Titans—now in Baltimore. Christmas Day is on a Wednesday this year, but the NFL wants to make it their day on the TV calendar no matter when Christmas occurs. The league put this in the second timeslot (4:30 PM ET) for their first year of the holiday partnership with Netflix, and it should be a good one.
Week 1: Ravens vs. Chiefs (Season opener)
We’ll have been waiting several months by the time September 5 rolls around, and there’s always a tremendous buzz in the air for the NFL Kickoff Game. Ravens-Chiefs feature two two-time NFL MVPs in Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, and Baltimore is of course one of those AFC rivals looking to knock off the two-time defending champs.
Week 13: 49ers vs. Bills (SNF)
49ers-Bills belongs squarely among the top games on the 2024 NFL schedule for a few reasons. Aside from it featuring two of the best teams in the league, it’s a fresh matchup, with Josh Allen only facing the 49ers once (throwing for 375 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-24 Buffalo win in 2020, a moment when the doubters finally started giving the superstar quarterback props). Another key reason I like this matchup so much is that it happens on Sunday Night Football during Thanksgiving week—a time, as Bill Belichick says, the season really begins. We should know what the 2024 versions of both teams are made of by this one.
Week 2: Bengals vs. Chiefs | Week 11: Chiefs vs. Bills
The Chiefs are going for a three-peat, and I’ll mention two of their non-standalone games (but in the late-afternoon window) here in the No. 1 slot after already hitting on their matchups with the Texans and Ravens. If someone is going to get past Kansas City, Cincinnati and Buffalo are two squads that have had the biggest rivalries with them and will hope to be next in line. Tight games are fully expected and could be big for the balance of power in the AFC.