More Standalone Games, More Bad Standalone Games

We all know the NFL is after world domination.  They haven't exactly been subtle about it.  Nor have they been shy about their plans.  The NFL keeps finding new windows for exclusive games.  Which sounds great in theory.  But, as we're seeing this season, the more standalone games you create, the greater the chances those games may suck.

This season, the NFL expanded its international slate to a record nine games.  Eight of them are in exclusive TV windows--the six in Europe on Sunday mornings, Rams-49ers from Australia on a Thursday night and a second 49ers game, a matchup with the Vikings in Mexico City, on a Sunday night.  (They lucked into a really good game for that one.)  The only international game that wasn't in a standalone window was Ravens-Cowboys from Rio in Week 3, which was the national doubleheader game on CBS.

That Week 1 Rams-49ers game was part of a new package of exclusive games for Netflix.  They'll also have another Rams game against the Packers on Thanksgiving Eve, as well as a doubleheader on Christmas and a Week 18 game.  That's five games on Netflix to go with the Black Friday game on Amazon Prime (which is essentially their replacement for not having a game on Thanksgiving).  Throw in ESPN's Week 18 doubleheader and the exclusive game on Peacock in Week 17, as well as the Kickoff Game, Thanksgiving, the NFL Network Saturday games and every Thursday, Sunday and Monday night, and you've got more standalone NFL games than ever before.

With the increase in primetime games, we've also seen another new wrinkle this season.  Teams playing multiple primetime games in a row.  It isn't completely new.  We've seen a team play Sunday night then Monday night or vice versa, but that would be maybe one or two teams a season.  Now it's multiple teams with three or more primetime games in a row.

The Rams actually didn't play on a Sunday afternoon until Week 4.  Their first three games were all in primetime (our time).  Then it was the Falcons, who did the primetime trifecta in Weeks 3-5 and the Cowboys in Weeks 5-7.  The Bears will play their third straight primetime game on Monday night, and the Bengals will start their run of three standalone games in a row when they play Atlanta (there's the Falcons again!) in Madrid on Sunday morning.

More standalone games obviously means teams playing in standalone games more often.  Which can be a good thing.  Or a really, really bad thing.  Because sometimes there may be a team you don't want to see playing in primetime get featured not only multiple times, but multiple times in a row.  As we've already seen more than once this season.

Granted, this isn't entirely the NFL's fault.  They make the schedule in May.  They have no idea of knowing which teams that were supposed to be good will end up sucking or being beset by injuries when those scheduled standalone games come around months later.  They can only base it on who they think will be good and/or worth watching.  That's why flex scheduling was invented in the first place.  To replace less desirable games with better ones.  Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way, though.

One consequence of having so many games scheduled in exclusive windows is that there are fewer games on Sunday afternoons.  Which means that if they are considering flexing, they have fewer options to replace the primetime games with.  And, logistically, some of those standalone games can't be moved regardless.  So, people get stuck with those less desirable matchups whether they like it or not.

Flex scheduling has been a feature of Sunday Night Football since NBC acquired the package in 2006.  It's only used a handful of times a season, if at all.  They haven't used it once this year.  Which doesn't necessarily speak to the quality of NBC's schedule as much as it says they have no better available to replace games they may want to flex out.  So, they leave them, knowing people will watch anyway.

They added flex scheduling for Thursday and Monday nights a few years ago.  However, that's used far more sparingly, and with good reason.  Moving a game from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night is easy.  Moving a game from Sunday afternoon to Thursday or Monday night is a far bigger logistical challenge.  It obviously means the teams having to change their preparation, but it also affects fans' plans, especially if they're traveling to the game.

International games, obviously, can't be flexed.  Neither can some of the other standalone contests.  That Packers-Rams game is on a Wednesday, a day when the NFL typically doesn't play.  Yet there are two Wednesday games this season.  If that's not a sign that they want to eventually play every day of the week, I don't know what is.  The only day left is Tuesday.  And Tuesday, frankly, is a lot easier to add to the schedule than Wednesday.  Which may be the point of all this.

It certainly seems like the reason for so many teams getting three straight primetime games is because they're giving seven-days-a-week a test run.  Just think about it.  You come out of your bye week and play Wednesday night, then play on Tuesday, then play on Monday before getting back to Sunday.  Or you go the other way and go Wednesday night, Thursday night, Sunday.  It's not that crazy to think about.  Especially since the NFL keeps squeezing in more standalone windows.

As the number of standalone games continues to grow, though, the problem won't get any better.  In fact, it'll only get worse.  Because the more standalone games you have, the harder it is to avoid having a bad team, a bad matchup or both.  It even seems likely that will become the norm rather than the exception.  And, as we've seen, it weakens the Sunday afternoon slate, too.  Which, in turn, further makes it hard to get out of less desirable games in featured, exclusive timeslots.

So, I think we may just have to get used to it.  There will be some good games in the NFL's standalone windows.  There will also be some really bad ones.  But you know what?  The NFL only cares so much.  Because they know people will watch anyway.