2020 NFL Schedule Release

When is the NFL schedule going to be released?

The NFL is apparently aiming to release the 2020 schedule no later than May 9. That’s a few weeks later than the typical release date that comes the week before the draft (which is April 23-25 this year).

NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell told NBC Sports: “We are planning on putting our game schedule out by May 9. We’re planning and working towards staying on schedule… We intend to do everything possible to stay focused on that and be prepared to execute on that because that’s where we think we’ll be.”

NFL exec Jeff Pash says on a conference call “our planning, our expectation is fully directed at playing a full season and starting on schedule. … Just as we did in 2019. Am I certain? I’m not certain I’ll be here tomorrow, but I’m planning on it. That’s what we talked about."

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 31, 2020

The full NFL season schedule will be announced in one go but it’s not uncommon for individual games to be announced or leaked ahead of time. NFL teams know their schedule in advance of the public announcement so they’ll usually put together some videos or social media posts focused on various marquee matchups for the season.

You can see previous NFL schedule release dates below:

Will this be a full NFL season?

Covid-19 has of course cast a lot of uncertainty on all major sports but as of now, the NFL is still planning to schedule a full, 16-game season.

“The easy answer and the hard answer are the same answer — which is it’s too soon to tell,” NFLPA medical director Thom Mayer said on Adam Schefter’s podcast on March 30 when asked whether there will be a 2020 NFL season. “I think we’re going to know a lot more in late May, early June.”

When is NFL Opening Day (Opening Weekend)?

Again, this might change but the NFL 2020 season is scheduled to begin on Sept. 10 and conclude on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021.

How will the 2020 NFL Season be different?

It’s still TBD how exactly Covid-19 will affect the NFL season. It’s possible that we’ll see shorter training camps or a shorter pre-season for example. However, one thing we do know is that the 2020 NFL season will feature an expanded playoff field from six teams to seven teams per conference:

NFL officially expands postseason to 14 teams, creating six total wild-card slots pic.twitter.com/VLiWS4xdiM

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) March 31, 2020

NFL 2020-2021 matchups

While we may not know the specifics of the 2020 NFL schedule until the schedule is actually released sometime before May 9th, we do know all the matchups. Below are the opponents for each team in 2020:

AFC East

AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

NFC East

NFC North

NFC South

NFC West