“League Doesn’t Care Anymore”: Insider Explains What’s Not Right With the 2024 NFL Schedule

A couple of days ago, the NFL released its 2024 schedule to much fanfare. The annual schedule release marks the first step towards the NFL season. Moreover, it builds hype and anticipation for key clashes for fans of their respective teams. However, after the initial jubilation, fans and analysts alike have now observed that the schedule for this season is not as well planned as before, especially for a few teams.

Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, MMQB’s senior NFL writer Albert Breer opined that the NFL schedule this season is extremely tight. Teams haven’t been given ample amount of time for recovery, as the haphazard planning of the schedule sees a short recovery time between games on the road. While some reasoned that due to this, quality clashes have been planned well with marquee slots, Breer opined that regardless, the NFL hasn’t made life easier for teams with their choices.

“I guess the first thing is that the league doesn’t care anymore about putting teams on the road three weeks in a row or playing teams in the middle of the week. I mean it feels like the gloves are off now, that’s my main takeaway,” Breer said during the interview.

Albert delved into the 2024 NFL schedule further by giving the New York Jets’ example. The Green Gang will play their season opener in San Francisco on a Monday night, and after the high-profile clash, they have only 6 days to prepare for their away game in Tennessee.

Considering the travel requires Aaron Rodgers & Co. to travel from west to east, Breer expressed concern about how teams like the Jets will manage recovery on such short notice. Breer also noted that teams like the Chiefs also have such stretches of play in their schedule.

“I​​t’s going to be really interesting to see what it does to the quality of play down the stretch because you know, you do hear players, especially the older guys having to deal with coming off of a short week and how that can take a little while to get your feet back out underneath you after playing so many games in such a truncated amount of time,” Breer stated.

Albert Breer’s statements make a lot of sense. Injury concerns and quality issues will surely be affected by such tight scheduling of matches. Therefore, fans aren’t too amused. However, the saving grace was the individual schedule announcement videos by each team, which kept the spirits high.

Best and Worst From the Teams’ 2024 NFL Schedule Announcement Videos

While the LA Chargers and Atlanta Falcons customized popular games “The Sims” and “NFL Street” to announce their schedule releases in a fun and dynamic way, galore with easter eggs, the best schedule announcement video was by the Baltimore Ravens, who leveraged Ravens superfan and comedian Stavros Halkias’ strengths to the fullest.

The Ravens’ skit sees Stavros plan a trip to LA to deliver an item from the Ravens’ HC to his brother Jim. However, the pit stops he takes at iconic Baltimore locales, and the fun interactions there that reveal the fixture list made the announcement video one of the best of the lot. However, the highs of the Ravens were swiftly balanced out by the lows of the Dolphins.

The Miami Dolphins arguably had one of the worst announcement videos. Their attempt to showcase their team’s speed as an element in their announcement video fizzled even more quickly. The 22-second announcement video saw the Dolphins display the schedule list in a hurry, making the video forgettable.

Another team that failed to impress with their announcement video was the Tennessee Titans, who simply rehashed their video concept from last year. Although the video was entertaining, it failed to impress fans due to the high bar of creativity set by the likes of the Ravens, Chargers, and Falcons.