We might need to wait a bit longer before we know the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2023 NFL schedule.
The NFL had originally planned their big schedule reveal for Thursday, May 11. According to NBC Sports’ Peter King in his latest Football Morning in America column, the league might not be finished with the schedule in time for that to happen. Some of the biggest games on the schedule seem to still be up in the air per King.
Check it out:
The release of the schedule, which the NFL had hoped to have for a primetime show Thursday night, may be delayed. It’s still likely to be done in time for release Thursday at 8 p.m., but I was told over the weekend it may not be finished in time. The 2023 mega-games—opening Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights, Thanksgiving Day, the new Black Friday tilt, the Sunday night game on Christmas Eve and the Monday tripleheader on Christmas—are not set in stone yet. The mega-games are usually solid by early May. The schedule crew is slated to meet with commissioner Roger Goodell this afternoon in New York, at which time more clarity on the tentpole games is expected. I’m told as of the weekend the NFL was still in search of options on the 272-game regular season slate, with a series of computers continuing to spit out alternatives.
We do already know the upcoming opponents for Kansas City and whether they’ll be home or away games. Now, it’s just a matter of the NFL settling when those games will be played.
King’s report also provided new information on one particular game in 2023 — the Chiefs’ matchup in Germany. It appears that game might not be against the Chicago Bears after all. It was previously reported by both ESPN and the German Newspaper Bild that the team’s game would be against the Bears.
King says that Kansas City is playing a November game in Frankfurt, Germany this year, but that it won’t be against Chicago. He also says that the report of a 2024 game in Munich against the Panthers hasn’t yet been decided.
Kansas City is playing a November game in Frankfurt this year; that’s a fact. The German newspaper Bild reported KC would play Chicago in the Germany game, and that KC would play again in Germany in 2024 when Carolina is due to host a game there. Bild reported Carolina’s 2024 foe would be Kansas City. I’ve been told there’s some doubt on both of those reports. First: When a team gives up one of its home games to play overseas, it has the option of requesting to the league one home game on its schedule the team does not want moved. I’m told Kansas City requested that the Chicago game not be played overseas. As for 2024, it’s hard to imagine Carolina would not try to keep Patrick Mahomes’ only currently scheduled game in Charlotte for the next eight years at Bank of America Stadium. You might ask, Wouldn’t Kansas City want to protect red-hot home games against Buffalo, Cincinnati and Philadelphia from moving to Germany? The league would almost certainly not schedule those games for overseas, because Germany games are played in the 9:30 a.m. ET window, which is not nearly as conducive to big ratings as are Sunday late-afternoon or primetime games.
We should get clarity on this situation as soon as the NFL finalizes its schedule and gets it to the public.
