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Three teams will be playing eight national games each in 2025 while two don’t play a national game at all
The NFL’s television partners have realized something that fans were always aware of: More people watch games when they’re on an island — the only game on TV — than when they’re competing against each other in the early slate on Sunday. That’s the crux of the league’s international expansion, holiday packages, double-header Monday Night Football slates and the improved quality of Thursday Night Football, all of which give the league’s biggest brands more time in the spotlight nationally.
But which teams are the biggest brands? Let’s take a look. Below is the breakdown of each team’s national games, be it a morning game in England or a night game for NBC, for the 2025 NFL season.
First of all, you’ll notice the bias toward the NFC East, the most popular division in the sport. Of the six teams that were awarded seven or more national games, half of them hail from the NFC East. The Dallas Cowboys, with eight national games, are by far the most popular non-playoff team in the national broadcast slate.
Below is a breakdown of each division’s combined national game appearances.
For reference, the average playoff team from 2024 averages 5.7 national games going into this year, while the average non-playoff team averages 3.2. No 2024 playoff team has fewer than four national games on their schedule, with the fewest being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans with four each.
Non-playoff teams with four or more national games are the Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. It’s worth remembering here that the Cowboys, Dolphins, 49ers and Bengals have each made the postseason with their current quarterback, the Seahawks added a 2024 playoff quarterback in Sam Darnold and the Bears are in the third-largest market in the league and picked Caleb Williams first overall last season. It’s not surprising to see these teams ranked high among non-playoff squads. As far as the Falcons go...your guess is as good as mine. Why there are more Atlanta games on the national schedule than the Bills, Chargers or Rams games makes little to no sense to me.
What’s really interesting, though, is...
