The 2023 NFL season is scheduled to be the 104th season of the National Football League (NFL). The season is planned to begin on September 7, 2023, with the defending Super Bowl LVII champion hosting the NFL Kickoff Game, and end on January 7, 2024. The playoffs are then scheduled to start on January 13, and conclude with Super Bowl LVIII, the league's championship game, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on February 11.
Player movement
Free agency
Free agency is scheduled to begin on March 15, 2023.[1]
McNally was the director of officiating for the NFL from 1968 to 1991. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022, becoming the first official to receive the honor. He died January 1, age 97.[5]
The season is planned to be played over an 18-week schedule beginning on September 7. Each of the league's 32 teams plays 17 games, with one bye week for each team. The regular season is scheduled to end on January 7, 2024; all games during the final weekend will be intra-division games, as it has been since 2010.[citation needed]
Each team plays the other three teams in its own division twice, one game against each of the four teams from a division in its own conference, one game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, one game against each of the remaining two teams in its conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division would play all three other teams in its conference that also finished fourth in their divisions), and one game against a team in another division in the other conference that also finished in the same position in their respective division the previous season.[6]
Thanksgiving: As has been the case since 2006, three games are scheduled for Thursday, November 23, with Detroit and Dallas hosting the traditional afternoon doubleheader games, and another game in primetime, As part of a new media agreement with Amazon Prime Video, this will be the first season that a game will be scheduled on the Friday after Thanksgiving.[9]
Christmas: Christmas Day, December 25, lands on a Monday. When this last occurred in 2017, the regular NBC Sunday Night Football broadcast was moved to Saturday, December 23, the normal slate of Sunday afternoon games was played on Christmas Eve, and two games were held on Christmas Day (including the normal Monday Night Football broadcast). The league could hold three games on Christmas Day like in 2022, as Fox will air games on Christmas Day as the schedule allows per the new media contracts.[10][11]
Changes to flexible scheduling rules
As part of the new media agreements, the league's flexible scheduling system has been modified this season to include Monday Night Football games, and increase the amount of cross-flexing (switching) of Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox. Games can now be flexed into Monday Night Football similar to how games can be flexed into NBC Sunday Night Football or into Saturdays on the final four weeks of the season. CBS and Fox will still be able to protect a limited number of games involving a specific number of AFC or NFC teams, respectively.[12]
Scheduling changes
Week 18: Two games with playoff implications are planned to be moved to Saturday, January 6, at 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. ET, both airing on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+. Another game with playoff implications will be moved into NBC Sunday Night Football at 8:20 p.m. ET. The rest will be scheduled as Sunday afternoon games on CBS or Fox.[13]
Postseason
The 2023 playoffs are scheduled to begin with the wild-card round, with three wild-card games played in each conference. Wild Card Weekend is planned for January 13–15, 2024. In the Divisional round scheduled for January 20–21, the top seed in the conference will play the lowest remaining seed and the other two remaining teams will play each other. The winners of those games will advance to the Conference Championship games scheduled for January 28. Super Bowl LVIII is scheduled for February 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.
Kingsbury was fired on January 9, after 4 seasons with the Cardinals. During his tenure, the team was 28–37–1 (.432), with one playoff appearance and no playoff wins.[14]
After a 1–4 start, Rhule was fired on October 10, 2022, after 2+ seasons with the team. During his tenure, the Panthers were 11–27 (.289) with no playoff appearances.
Wilks, the team's defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach, took over as interim coach. This is his second NFL head coaching position, having previously been the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for one season.[15]
Hackett was fired on December 26, 2022, after a 4–11 (.267) tenure, missing the playoffs in his only partial season with the team.[16]
Rosburg, the team's senior assistant to the head coach, was named interim head coach. This is his first head coaching position; he previously served as the Baltimore Ravens special team coordinator for eleven seasons.[17]
Reich was fired on November 7, 2022, after starting the season 3–5–1 (.389). In 5+ seasons with the Colts, Reich was 40–33–1 (.547), with 2 wild card playoff appearances and a playoff record of 1–2 (.333).[19]
Saturday, a 6-time Pro Bowler who played 13 seasons as a center in the NFL (12 of them for the Colts), and consultant for the team, was named interim head coach. His only previous coaching experience at any level was for Hebron Christian Academy in Dacula, Georgia.[20]
Robinson was fired on December 6, 2022, after 6+ seasons as the Titans' GM, despite a relatively successful tenure with the Titans, including 2 AFC South titles, 4 playoff appearances, and an AFC Championship appearance in 2019.
Cowden, the team's vice president of player personnel, served as interim GM for the rest of the season.[24]
Carthon, the San Francisco 49ers' Director of Player Personnel since 2016, was hired on January 18. He had been in management positions with several teams since 2008, after playing two seasons with the Indianapolis Colts from 2004–2006.[25]
Uniforms
Uniform changes
Detroit team president Rod Wood said that the Lions would consider a uniform change to be implemented in 2023. In December 2022, it was reported that the team filed paperwork to change their uniforms for the following season.[26][27]
Philadelphia announced the return of their Kelly green throwback uniforms for the 2023 season on March 29, 2022. According to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, this version of the Kelly green uniforms will be modeled after the set from 1985–1995.[28] The Eagles last featured Kelly green uniforms during the 2010 season.[29]
Seattle announced that they would reintroduce their 1990s era uniforms as a part of the "NFL's classic uniform program" during the 2023 season on November 27, 2022.[30]
Tampa Bay announced the return of the throwback "creamsicle" uniforms worn from 1976–1996 on February 28, 2022. The team intended to wear the design during the 2022 season but delayed its reintroduction until 2023, citing supply chain issues.[31] The team will wear this design for the first time since the 2012 season.[32]
Media
Television
This will be the first season under new eleven year TV agreements with the CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN/ABC, renewing their rights to the AFC package, NFC package, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football, respectively, through the 2033 season. Among the new changes:[33][34]
Flexible scheduling has been expanded to include Monday Night Football, and increase the amount of "cross-flexing" (switching) Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox. Under the new system, CBS and Fox will be able to protect a limited number of games involving a specific number of teams from their respective conference.[35]
The number of ABC/ESPN Monday Night Football split doubleheaders increases from one to three.
Fox acquires the rights to air Christmas Day games as the schedule permits.[36]
The two extra Wild card game’s previously possessed by CBS, NBC and Fox will continue to be on rotation annually with ESPN/ABC guaranteed to only air one wild card game per year[37]
The four broadcasters will now each air one divisional playoff game, with ABC/ESPN taking over the slot that was previously rotated annually between CBS and Fox.
ABC/ESPN has been added back into the annual Super Bowl rotation, with the four broadcasters airing the game in the following order: CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC/ESPN.
NFL Network will continue to televise select regular season games, at least seven of them exclusively under its cable provider agreements.[38][39]
CBS will continue to produce alternative, youth-oriented telecasts of selected games on sister channel Nickelodeon.[41]
This is the second season that DirecTV is allowed to air Thursday Night Football on DirecTV's packages for business customers. This agreement was independent of DirecTV's previous NFL Sunday Ticket deal, primarily to allow bars, restaurants, casinos, and other venues to continue offering TNF games without reconfiguring their systems to accommodate a streaming-only platform.[42]
Streaming
This will be the first of six seasons that Peacock will exclusively stream one game per year through 2028. Peacock will continue to simulcast all NBC games through 2033.[33]
This will be the second season that ESPN+ exclusively streams one International Series game, along with simulcasts of all ABC games through the 2033 season.[43]
Paramount+ will continue to simulcast all CBS games.[33]
NFL+ will continue to simulcast all local and national primetime regular season games on mobile platforms (not including casting to TV's), all out of market preseason games Live (national games for mobile devices only) along with replays of all games.[45]
NFL Sunday Ticket
For residential customers, this will be the first season that the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market sports package will exclusively be on YouTube TV, as well as on YouTube's Primetime Channels service as a standalone subscription option.[46]DirecTV declined to renew its exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which it held since the package's debut in 1994.[47][48]
It is unknown whether DirecTV will continue to hold the rights to offer NFL Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, and other commercial venues, allowing them to continue showing games without having to reconfigure their systems to accommodate a streaming-only platform.[49]
Radio
Westwood One will continue its longstanding audio broadcasting rights to all nationally televised games, while adding audio coverage of other events such as the NFL Draft and NFL Honors. It also greatly expands the ability for its broadcasts to be distributed for free via digital platforms, including via local affiliates' "primary digital platforms", and via the NFL app.[50]Compass Media, ESPN Radio and Sports USA will continue to broadcast select Local Sunday afternoon games nationally on radio.[51]
^"On Christmas, the NFL's average audience was five times larger than the NBA's". ProFootballTalk. December 29, 2022. Retrieved December 31, 2022. Look for the NFL to constantly find a way to fill the day, regardless of the day of the week on which it lands. In 2023, it will be easy. Play a full slate of games on Sunday, December 24, and play three on Monday, December 25.
