The 49ers’ schedule is officially out which means the dissecting of their 18-week slate can begin! We ran through the 17 games and broke down some of the most noteworthy elements of San Francisco’s 2023 campaign.
Their schedule includes their usual NFC West games, plus matchups with the NFC East and AFC North. The 49ers’ first-place finish in the NFC West last year also pitted them against the NFC North winner, AFC South winner and NFC South winner.
Here’s what we took away from our first perusal of San Francisco’s 2023 schedule:
Two holidays
The 49ers play on two holidays this year, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. They’ll visit the Seahawks on Thanksgiving Day for a 5:20pm Pacific Time kickoff. Then they’re home for a Christmas Day showdown with the Ravens at 5:15pm Pacific.
A favorable pair of Thursdays
The Thanksgiving game isn’t the only Thursday kickoff for the 49ers this year. They’re also hosting the Giants for a Thursday night game in Week 3.
Having a Thursday game early in the year means the 49ers will only be two weeks in when they have to go on a short week. Then they’ll get an early mini-bye into the next week where they’ll stay home to face the Cardinals.
Their second Thursday kickoff means another short week before heading to Seattle where they clinched the division on Thursday Night Football last year. However, they’re at home against the Buccaneers the week before that, and then their mini-bye week will give them a couple extra days off before flying to Philadelphia for their NFC East rematch with the Eagles.
Good time for a bye
The 49ers’ bye week comes at a good time. It’s in the middle of the schedule in Week 9 and follows what should be a tough game against the Bengals at Levi’s Stadium. The week after the bye they’ll make one of their East Coast trips to play the Jaguars. Getting a full week off before flying East should mitigate some of the effects of an early kickoff and a cross-country flight.
5 primetime games
The 49ers have five primetime games – which is the maximum scheduled amount. They can also be flexed into two more. They have Thursday night against the Giants in Week 3, Sunday night vs. the Cowboys in Week 5, Monday night at the Vikings in Week 7, Thursday night against the Seahawks in Week 12, then Monday night against the Ravens on Christmas in Week 16.
No long East Coast swing
There was a chance the 49ers had a long East Coast trip where they stayed in West Virginia or Youngstown like they have in the past. However, none of their long trips East are more than one game. They do play at Cleveland and then at Minnesota in Weeks 6 and 7, but it’s unlikely the team will want to stay since that Week 7 game is a Monday night affair.
Tame road trips
Speaking of road trips, the 49ers don’t have many rough ones. They’re at Pittsburgh to open the year, then they travel to Los Angeles in Week 2. They have those Weeks 6 and 7 games in Cleveland and Minnesota. Then they have the turnaround in Weeks 12 and 13 where they’re at Seattle for Thursday night then in Philadelphia the next week. With games in Pittsburgh, Philly, Washington DC and Jacksonville the travel schedule could’ve been brutal, but for the most part the schedule is pretty tame on that front for San Francisco.
Easy early kicks
Early kickoffs can wreak havoc on West Coast teams, but the 49ers fall in a pretty good spot with their three 10:00am Pacific Time kicks. Their first one is the season opener so they’ll have all offseason to prepare for the earlier kick. They do have an early one at Cleveland in Week 6 following Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys in Week 5, but the travel to Cleveland isn’t as hellacious as the travel to the East Coast. Their next 10:00am PT kick is in Week 10 at Jacksonville after the bye. The toughest will be Week 17 at Washington after facing the Ravens on Monday night the previous week.
