Tag: Patriots 2020 Schedule

The three biggest surprises from the Patriots’ 2020 schedule

There were some interesting things revealed during the schedule release.

The NFL released the league’s schedule during their ‘Schedule Reveal ’20’ program on NFL Network. Teams and fans finally found out exactly when they’ll match-up against divisional rivals and appear on primetime.

For the Patriots, the schedule was going to be difficult no matter what. Based on last year’s winning percentage, New England has the toughest slate of games this season, as their opponent’s won 53.7% of their games last year. A lot of that is aided by their match-ups with the NFC West that had three teams win at least nine games including the defending NFC Champion 49ers led by former Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

While the schedule is fairly simple, there are a few surprises for the Patriots as well.

New England will play in five primetime games

When Tom Brady left, there was an understandable feeling that the Patriots were going to have a considerable drop-off. Without one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time, it seemed as though the Patriots wouldn’t get as much respect from the rest of the league. However, they have been given the maximum number of primetime games during this process.

The NFL still feels that the Patriots would still be a competitive team that people will want to watch. Whether that is true remains to be seen. But, for now, Bill Belichick is getting the respect he deserves.

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Bill Belichick will appear on NFL Network’s schedule release and may bring a friend

The coach and his dog may stop by the show.

As the world is seemingly at a standstill, the NFL is still planning on having a season come September. While it’s already a unique with the move to digital offseason activities, the league is preparing the season as they normally would.

NFL Network’s schedule-release show begins at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday. As the name implies, all teams and fans will officially learn their week-to-week match-ups for the upcoming season. The show, which is set to be three hours in duration, will have representatives from 24 teams joining the broadcast including players, general managers and coaches.

From New England, coach Bill Belichick will be appearing in some capacity, according to the list tweeted out by NFL Media.

The last time Belichick was seen was in his virtual war room on Nantucket during the draft. There, he was accompanied by his dog, Nike, who gained quite a following after his appearance.

The NFL put in a request to have Nike featured on their program, according to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal.

Senior VP of programming and production for NFL Media Mark Quenzel confirmed the request to the Sports Business Journal.

“Yes we made a request for the dog,” Quenzel said. “We don’t know if we’re going to get the dog. The dog may be the star of the whole darn show.”

It’s not clear if Nike will actually make an appearance on the show, but the head coach will be there. That should be incentive enough to tune in, adding Nike would just be the icing on the cake.

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