Mike Florio thinks the NFL may be laying the groundwork for a bigger weekly takeover, and he’s pointing to one specific trend as the clue: teams stacking multiple prime-time games in back-to-back weeks.
The Bears are next in line. They begin a stretch of three straight prime-time games Thursday night against the Patriots, joining a group of teams that have already done the same. NBC Sports notes that five teams - the Rams, Falcons, Cowboys, Seahawks and Bears - have three consecutive prime-time games on their schedules this season, something that was not the case in 2025.
Florio raised the idea on PFT Live in a clip shared by the show on X, where the post said, “Multiple teams have three straight prime-time games this year. We have a theory about that,” before Florio walked Chris Simms through the thinking. His suggestion: those stretches could be tied to a future where Tuesday and Wednesday games become more common, with the league needing enough rest between night games to make that kind of schedule work.
He also poked fun at how he arrived at the theory, saying he pulled it from thin air “and/or my butt.”
Florio expanded on the same point in his NBC Sports column. “If/when Tuesday and Wednesday night games become commonplace, a given team playing at night in consecutive weeks will be a key component of that plan,” Florio wrote.
The NFL has already pushed back on the idea that the pattern is anything more than coincidence. According to Forbes, a league spokesperson responded in September after questions came up about the Falcons’ stretch and said, “this happens a few times a year and was not intentional.” The league cited opponents, stadium availability, viewership predictions and network requests as the reasons behind the scheduling.
There’s also at least one caution flag in the NFL’s own recent experiment with weeknight football. The league opened with a Wednesday-night game, but the Patriots-Seahawks opener did not draw the same ratings as Thursday openers. Even so, league executives also discussed the possibility of more Wednesday games later in the season.
The next one is set for Thanksgiving Eve, when the Packers visit the Rams.
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