Spiritually, Week 10’s disgusting primetime NFL schedule feels like the worst nationally broadcast lineup the league has ever foisted upon its fans. Technically, however, it isn’t even the worst slate of marquee games in the past 13 months.
From a straight wins and losses perspective, Week 10 — featuring a Thursday night game between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears, a Sunday night matchup between the New York Jets and Las Vegas Raiders and a Monday Night Football battle between the Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills — barely cracks the top 10 when it comes to overall unwatchability. Two of these teams have at least .500 records, and while that doesn’t reflect the fact the Raiders are starting a fourth-round rookie or that the Bills are spiraling or that the Broncos could implode without warning at any second, it at least suggests things could be worse.
And friends, they have been. By breaking down the records of Sunday, Thursday and Monday night participants, we can pinpoint just what the worst week of primetime football since 2013 actually was — and it’s a level of football significantly below what fans will be subject to in Week 10.
Which teams qualified for this buffet of mediocrity that left fans flipping the channel over to wrestling or the dying remnants of must-see TV? Let’s run down the top 10, in order from moderately hopeless to thoroughly gross.
10
2022, Week 12
Thursday Night Football: Rams (5-12) at Raiders (6-11)
Sunday Night Football: Chargers (10-7) at Dolphins (9-8)
Monday Night Football: Patriots (8-9) at Cardinals (4-13)
Combined win percentage: .412
Bonus sadness! This was the week Kyler Murray tore his ACL and Baker Mayfield led the Rams back from a 16-3 deficit in the final 3:20 to truly test Josh McDaniels’ capacity for shame (the limit does not exist). Chargers-Dolphins, comparatively, was fine.
9
2023, Week 10
Thursday Night Football: Panthers (1-7) at Bears (2-7)
Sunday Night Football: Jets (4-4) at Raiders (4-5)
Monday Night Football: Broncos (3-5) at Bills (5-4)
Combined win percentage: .412
Bonus sadness! Bryce Young is coming off two pick sixes vs. a single touchdown pass in his last outing. He’ll square off against undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent. Sunday night features a battle between Zach Wilson and Aidan O’Connell which, phew. Monday night? WELCOME TO LATE STAGE RUSSELL WILSON, BABY
8
2013, Week 10
Thursday Night Football: Vikings (5-10-1) at Washington (3-13)
Sunday Night Football: Saints (11-5) at Cowboys (8-8)
Monday Night Football: Buccaneers (4-12) at Dolphins (8-8)
Combined win percentage: .411
Bonus sadness! As expected, New Orleans — the only winning team in the bunch — beat the crap out of Dallas 49-17. The other two games were closer, but also heavily featured Mike Glennon and Christian Ponder so, you know, choose your poison there.
7
2017, Week 15
Thursday Night Football: Broncos (5-11) at Colts (4-12)
Sunday Night Football: Cowboys (9-7) at Raiders (6-10)
Monday Night Football: Falcons (10-6) at Buccaneers (5-11)
Combined win percentage: .406
Bonus sadness! This was season that, mercifully, did not feature a single Cleveland Browns game in primetime. We were forced to get our fix of Hue Jackson’s 0-16 team elsewhere. Instead we got a nationally televised showdown between Brock Osweiler and Jacoby Brissett, filling in for Trevor Siemian (injury, general Trevor Siemian-ness) and Andrew Luck (injury), respectively
6
2018, Week 7
Thursday Night Football: Broncos (6-10) at Cardinals (3-13)
Sunday Night Football: Chiefs (12-4) at Bengals (6-10)
Monday Night Football: Falcons (7-9) at Giants (5-11)
Combined win percentage: .406
Bonus sadness! Patrick Mahomes racked up 551 yards of total offense while dismantling Cincinnati on Sunday night. That 45-10 score was mirrored by Denver, who effectively told us all we needed to know about the Steve Wilks/Josh Rosen era in Arizona with its own blowout win.
5
2022, Week 7
Thursday Night Football: Cardinals (4-13) at Saints (7-10)
Sunday Night Football: Dolphins (9-8) at Steelers (9-8)
Monday Night Football: Bears (3-14) at Patriots (8-9)
Combined win percentage: .392
Bonus sadness! Chicago won three games all year and one of them was a 33-14 awful-waffling of the Patriots in Foxborough — one week after scoring exactly seven points in a loss to the Commanders.
4
2020, Week 8
Thursday Night Football: Falcons (4-12) at Panthers (5-11)
Sunday Night Football: Eagles (4-11-1) at Cowboys (6-10)
Monday Night Football: Buccaneers (11-5) at Giants (6-10)
Combined win percentage: .380
Bonus sadness! Week 8 featured the eventual Super Bowl champions … and five teams who won no more than six games that season. Also, there was a global pandemic, etc.
3
2015, Week 9
Thursday Night Football: Bengals (12-4) at Browns (3-13)
Sunday Night Football: Eagles (7-9) at Cowboys (4-12)
Monday Night Football: Bears (6-10) at Chargers (4-12)
Combined win percentage: .375
Bonus sadness! Jay Cutler led Chicago to a comeback win with a pair of fourth quarter scoring drives. Sadly, 2015 turned out to be one of his six losing seasons with the Bears. He is also the franchise’s winningest quarterback.
2
2014, Week 3
Thursday Night Football: Falcons (6-10) at Buccaneers (2-14)
Sunday Night Football: Steelers (11-5) at Panthers (7-8-1)
Monday Night Football: Bears (5-11) at Jets (4-12)
Combined win percentage: .370
Bonus sadness! Week 3 featured two division champions but only one team with a winning record, as Carolina claimed the NFC South with seven wins. The Panthers went on to end the Arizona Cardinals’ 11-win season, in large part due to the fact third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley was forced to start that Wild Card game and threw 28 passes for a net total of 51 yards.
1
2013, Week 5
Thursday Night Football: Browns (4-12) at Bills (6-10)
Sunday Night Football: Raiders (4-12) at Chargers (9-7)
Monday Night Football: Jets (8-8) at Falcons (4-12)
Combined win percentage: .365
Bonus sadness! There was one playoff team in this grouping. It was a 9-7 Chargers who, per tradition, wasted one of the best seasons of Philip Rivers’ career by fizzling out in the postseason. Every single game featured a four-win team. Remarkably, two of them — Cleveland and Oakland — won, in part because the Bills were reduced to playing Jeff Tuel (pictured) at quarterback.
So what did we learn from this list? Well, if you’re slotting the Bears and Falcons in for multiple Monday Night Football appearances, you’re probably going to have a bad time.
The Cowboys suffer from the league’s desire to continually feature them in prime time. The Browns barely make a cameo on this list because the NFL is generally smart enough to keep them away from national broadcasts whilst terrible. Similarly, there aren’t any Jacksonville Jaguars Thursday night games on this list, because the league has been smart enough to balance out a game that’s typically putrid with some solid, playoff-caliber matchups later in the week.
All in all, 2023’s Week 10 could challenge for the top spot on this list. The Panthers and Bears are both playing for draft position (namely, Chicago’s since they control the top of Carolina’s draft). The Jets and Raiders have the kind of quarterback uncertainty that leads to disaster. For now, however, it’s merely a top 10 bad week in primetime rather than a historical one.
