Who plays on ‘Thursday Night Football’ tonight? Time, TV channel, schedule for NFL Week 17 game

It’s time for some Thursday Night Football, and here’s everything you need to know about what teams are playing and where to catch the action. 

One of the ongoing debates among NFL fans is whether or not Thursday Night Football is any good.

The quality of the game never seems to be that great, the players aren’t fully rested, and the result of what we end up watching is often times not worth the effort needed to make it all happen. Considering that effort consists of just sitting on the couch, you start to get an idea of just how bad the product is on Thursday Nights.

Week 17 is perhaps the apex of Bad Football, and the epitome of the Thursday Night Football conundrum fans find themselves in. The Titans and Cowboys are both playoff contenders — with Dallas already punching its ticket to the postseason. The Titans need to win one more game to make sure they don’t miss the playoffs after leading the AFC South for most of the season, but that game isn’t tonight.

Tennessee needs to beat Jacksonville next Sunday in order to make the playoffs. It’s a win-or-stay-home scenario, a playoff game to get into the playoffs, and it has rendered tonight’s game against the Cowboys meaningless.

Perhaps nothing epitomizes how fruitless TNF has historically been than two playoff-contending teams meeting in Week 17 and the game itself meaning absolutely nothing.

Thursday Night Football tonight: Jets vs. Jaguars time, TV channel

Matchup: Tennessee Titans vs. Dallas Cowboys
Venue: Nissan Stadium
Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
Channel: Amazon Prime Video

While the game is essentially meaningless for teh Titans, there’s incentive for Dallas to show up and have a big night. After upsetting the Eagles on Christmas Eve, the Cowboys are in a position to potentially win the NFC East.

Dallas would need to win its remaining two games, and have Philly lose its last two, in order to jump into first place in the division. Doing so would also pull the Cowboys out of the Wild Card and into the No. 2 seed and put a first-round bye in play.

In this scenario where Dallas wins out and the Eagles lose out, the Vikings would need to lose one of their final two games in order for the Cowboys to take the No. 1 seed. Minnesota has remaining games against the Packers and Bears, with the Eagles facing matchups against the Saints and Giants in the final two weeks of the season.