Turf Show Times
Surprising lack of primetime games, and other takeaways from the NFL schedule release
The NFL released the 2025 schedule Wednesday night, and the Los Angeles Rams should have little to complain about. L.A. will start this upcoming season at home against Houston, a team that has made the AFC playoffs in back-to-back years.
The Rams are set to build on their promising campaign that ended just shy of the NFC Championship. Here are my five takeaways on the Rams’ schedule:
A year after the Rams played in six primetime games, there are only four on the docket this season. Most surprising is that the Eagles, Ravens and Lions matchups are not night games, odd considering all three teams are considered Super Bowl contenders. It’s a tad disappointing to see that L.A. won’t get revenge on Philly in front of a wider audience. Well, considering what Saquon Barkley did to them twice on national television, that’s probably a good thing.
Instead, Los Angeles will face the 49ers (Week 5), Buccaneers (Week 12), Seahawks (Week 16) and Falcons (Week 17) in primetime. Of course, the Ravens and Lions games could be flexed to a later time slot depending on both teams’ records at that point in the season. The NFL’s flex scheduling begins in Week 5.
L.A. will play three of its first five games at SoFi Stadium. Starting the year against the Texans is a much better deal than playing at Detroit to kick off the 2024 campaign. Then, the Rams face two rebuilding squads in the Titans and 49ers, and a question mark in the Colts. San Francisco remains a dangerous thorn in Sean McVay’s side, but it has lost a lot this offseason.
And unless Anthony Richardson plays drastically different from how he has begun his NFL career, the Rams shouldn’t have much to worry about. Besides a road trip to Philadelphia in Week 3, L.A. has an easier slate to get off to a faster start that has eluded them the past two seasons.
In 2024, Los Angeles had a Week 6 bye, which didn’t seem to faze them much as they got hot in the second half of the year.
With the Rams’ bye week in Week 8, that will be perfect after playing the Jaguars across the pond the week before. After the break, the team will then face the presumably woeful Saints, so essentially, L.A. will have two straight bye weeks. The Rams will also play five divisional games over the season’s second half. Not exactly ideal, but at least McVay’s squad will have more time to prepare in defending its NFC West crown.
There was a rumor that the Rams would play on Thanksgiving for the first time since 1975. That never came to fruition. Honestly, if a Turkey Day...
