Here’s why the NFL’s schedule gurus make so many changes to the Week 17 and 18 schedules, and what it all means for fans and the playoff picture.
The NFL regular season is turning down the stretch and the playoff picture is coming into focus, and that means not just the teams but the league’s scheduling crew is hard at work.
The Chargers, who play at Dallas on Sunday, can secure a postseason berth with a victory and some help from a team or two. Coupled with a win over the Cowboys, the Chargers need Las Vegas to win at Houston (unlikely) or San Francisco to win at Indianapolis (more likely) so they can rest easy knowing they’re at least in the playoffs for the second consecutive season under Jim Harbaugh.
Although the Rams have already qualified for the playoffs, they need to regain their balance after a spirit-snapping loss at Seattle on Thursday that likely cost them a chance at the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule for the end of this season and beginning of next, along with decisions that need to be made:
— Why did the league schedule Houston at the Chargers for Saturday of Week 17?
The game was always a candidate for that 1:30 p.m. slot on NFL Network, and Seattle at Carolina was also under consideration.
The league liked Texans-Chargers on Saturday because both of those clubs likely will be playing in January — maybe against each other again — and if that game were moved to Sunday afternoon, it would be going head-to-head against Fox’s national game, Philadelphia at Buffalo, a potential Super Bowl preview.
So the NFL wanted to do the Texans and Chargers a solid and give them the national stage to themselves.
— Rams at Atlanta in Week 17 isn’t a fantastic Monday night game for Week 17, especially with the Falcons currently at 5-9. But with all the games spread throughout the week of Christmas, there weren’t a lot of great replacement options.
The league didn’t move Texans-Chargers into that slot for good reason.
