The Kansas City Chiefs are already scheduled to play in five prime-time games during the 2020 NFL season, but could they be due for more or fewer games as the season progresses?
The NFL’s policy on flexible scheduling allows networks to move two games to prime time during weeks 5-10 of the NFL season. During Week 11-16, every Sunday game is eligible to be scheduled at a different time slot unless they’ve been protected by the network. Networks are allowed to protect just one game during that span, which is usually announced in mid-October. Only games originally scheduled for 3:25 p.m. CT are allowed to be moved to “Sunday Night Football.” During Week 17, there is no game scheduled for Sunday night as the NFL always flexes a game with playoff implications to that slot.
Below you’ll find all of the games eligible for flexible scheduling and my thoughts on their likelihood to be moved from their original time slots.
Week 7: at Broncos – 3:25 p.m. on CBS
Likelihood: High
This game is actually one of the most likely games for flexible scheduling for the Chiefs. CBS has three afternoon Chiefs games and they’re only allowed to protect one from being bumped to NBC for “Sunday Night Football”. I anticipate that they’ll be protecting the Buccaneers game in Week 12 or the Saints game in Week 15. That’d leave this pivotal AFC West matchup with the ability to be moved to Sunday night over a matchup between the Raiders and Buccaneers in Las Vegas.