Welcome to prime time, Washington Commanders and fans.
A year removed from entering the regular season with two prime-time matchups on the schedule, Washington is now the belle of the NFL schedule-release ball, even if the Kansas City Chiefs lead the way with eight prime-time games entering the 2025 season.
The Commanders are slated to play in 10 standalone or exclusive windows during the 2025 NFL season, the latest effect of the franchise’s revival. The Commanders of 2024, the NFL’s most surprising team that came one win away from the Super Bowl thanks to a historic rookie season from quarterback Jayden Daniels, ended up playing three prime-time games last season when their late-season tilt with the Atlanta Falcons was flexed to “Sunday Night Football.”
The Commanders are “valued really highly,” because of the hype surrounding Daniels and last year, FOX president, insights and analytics, Michael Mulvihill told USA TODAY Sports, but also because the Washington market “has great football history, a franchise with a lot of history.”
“The two sleeping giants in the NFC are Chicago (Bears) and Washington,” Mulvihill said. “I think when you take a look at the schedule, the league has really leaned on those teams and those second-year quarterbacks.”
Washington is opening the “Thursday Night Football” slate by traveling to Lambeau Field for a Week 2 date with the Green Bay Packers. They’re hosting two “SNF” games and are on “Monday Night Football” twice (one of those games is Caleb Williams and Chicago returning to the site of last season’s “Hail Mary” disaster) in October. There’s a FOX Saturday standalone game on Dec. 20 (against the Philadelphia Eagles) and then appear five days later in a Netflix Christmas Day game (vs. the Dallas Cowboys).
Don’t forget the early November trip across the Atlantic Ocean to play the Miami Dolphins in the NFL’s first-ever contest in Spain (Madrid, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network).
“It’s the world stage,” NFL executive vice president for media distribution Hans Schroeder told USA TODAY Sports.
Close to home, though, the Commanders have the advantage of playing in the populated markets of the NFC East. They also play the NFC North and AFC West this season as part of the cross-divisional rotation.
“There’s just some really exciting matchups,” Schroeder told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s the excitement of the team. Those things came together in the right way.”
Schroeder said that with four new teams on average making the playoffs each season, that by this time next year, the team (if any) that arrives in style will play the role of the 2024 Commanders during the annual schedule release.
“We’re going to be very consistent, but…we love it when teams play their way onto bigger stages,” said Schroeder, noting the successes of the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals leading to grander stages for those franchises.
Amazon Prime Video head of US Sports programming Jeff Kaiser said his company wanted to showcase the Commanders early in the “TNF” schedule.
“It’s only his second season, but after what he did in his rookie campaign it feels like he’s been around much longer than that,” Kaiser told USA TODAY Sports.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Washington Commanders become apple of NFL decision-makers’ eyes
