NFL Schedule 2020: Breaking down the primetime games

Thursday Night Football: Worst games

One of the most challenging aspects of assembling the Thursday night schedule is its limitations. No team can play on a Thursday after a Sunday more than once in a given season, so filling the package means getting pretty much every team involved.

The worst games usually get hidden as NFL Network exclusives, and that is the case once again this season. The NFL Network has the first three Thursday night matchups all to itself in 2020, and fittingly, all six teams involved missed the playoffs in 2019.

The worst offender has to be the Battle of Florida in Week 3 between Miami and Jacksonville, especially since the Jaguars could be a team that looks to tank for Trevor Lawrence. Browns-Bengals and Broncos-Jets aren’t much better, but they at least won’t be on FOX.

The other questionable decision is the placement of the Cardinals-Seahawks tilt flat in the middle of November, a sweeps period for FOX. Arizona is certainly much improved compared to last season but that is a significant leap of faith in one of the league’s most important time slots of the season.