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There are always some crazy quirks when it comes to the NFL schedule, and this year is no different. Although the league office does its best to make all 32 teams happy, the fact of the matter is that making everyone happy just isn’t possible when you’re putting together a schedule that consists of 272 games.

Some teams will be happy about the quirks on their schedule while plenty of other teams won’t be.

So who got the craziest quirks? That’s a great question. Let’s find out.

Here are 22 of the weirdest quirks on the 2025 NFL schedule, starting with the Dallas Cowboys, who got hit with two quirks that the NFL has never seen before.

1. Cowboys hit with most brutal stretch ever. Someone in the NFL scheduling department must have wanted to see the Cowboys suffer this season, because they got handed a brutal stretch that will go on for SIX WEEKS. Starting in Week 12, the Cowboys will face the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions and Vikings in consecutive games, which will make Dallas the FIRST team in NFL history to play four straight games against teams that all won at least 14 games in the prior season. The Cowboys will also face the Chargers and Commanders in that stretch, so they’ll also become the first team in NFL history to play six straight games against teams that all won at least 11 games in the prior season. Basically, the Cowboys have a nightmare schedule.
2. Thirsty Thursday. It’s starting to seem like the NFL is trying to permanently move every Cowboys game to a Thursday. Dallas has a total of four Thursday games this year, which is the NFL record for most Thursday games in one season. The action starts in Week 1 against Philadelphia. After that, the Cowboys have a Thanksgiving game against the Chiefs, a Week 14 game against the Lions and then a Christmas game against the Commanders. Going into this year, several teams had played three Thursday games in a single season, but no team had played four.
3. Cowboys hit the scheduling trifecta. The Cowboys landed several prime spots on the schedule this year with games on Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus they’re slotted into the NFL opener against the Eagles. The Cowboys are the first team in 14 years to be scheduled in those three spots. The last time it happened came in 2011 when the Packers played on Thanksgiving and Christmas on top of playing in the opener. Of course, it made sense to give the Packers those games back then because they were coming off a Super Bowl win in 2010. The Cowboys are coming off a 7-10 season, but they draw huge TV ratings, which is how they landed the coveted spots.
4. Eagles’ brutal schedule. The Eagles have the fourth-most difficult strength of schedule in 2025, and one reason for that is because they face so many playoff teams. They Eagles will face 10 teams that went to the postseason last year, which is an NFL record. Both the Eagles and Lions will play a total of 11 games against playoff teams from last season, but the Lions will only face nine playoff teams. The Eagles’ slate includes a rematch with all four teams they faced in the postseason last year (Packers, Rams, Commanders, Chiefs), which makes them the first team since the 1993 Bills to face that situation.
5. Eagles on the move all year. The Eagles won’t play back-to-back home games a single time this year, which will make them the first Super Bowl champion in NFL history to not play consecutive home games at any point in the season after their Super Bowl win.
6. Chiefs are going prime time. If you turn on your TV at any point this fall, there’s a good chance you’re going to see the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes’ team has been given five prime-time games over the first eight weeks, which marks the first time in NFL history that a team has been given that many night games over the first 11 weeks. Overall, the Chiefs will play seven prime-time games, which is tied with the 2023 Bills for the most in NFL history. The Chiefs also play on Thanksgiving, which means they’ll be getting eight standalone games.
7. Commanding an audience. As we just mentioned, the Chiefs have eight standalone games, which is actually tied with the COMMANDERS for the most in the NFL. The Commanders were the big winners on the 2025 schedule with the NFL putting them in a standalone spot for nearly half their games. That total includes five prime-time games, one game in Spain, one Saturday game and one Christmas game. Basically, you’re going to be seeing a lot of the Commanders this year.
8. Vikings making international history. This will mark the third straight season that an NFL team is playing back-to-back international games, but the Vikings will be making history because they’ll be doing it in two different countries, which has never been done before. After facing the Steelers in Dublin in Week 4, the Vikings will face the Browns in London in Week 5. In both 2023 and 2024, the Jaguars played back-to-back games in London, but they only played in one country.
9. Three teams pulling off a holiday double-dip. The Chiefs, Cowboys and Lions will all be playing on both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. The Chiefs will be the first AFC team to pull off the holiday double-dip since the Steelers in 2016. As for the Cowboys and Lions, it’s not as rare in the NFC as the 49ers pulled off the Thanksgiving-Christmas combo in 2023.
10. Bengals and Ravens making rare Thanksgiving appearances, but Bengals might not be happy about where the game is being played. This season will mark the first time in 15 years that the Bengals have been scheduled for a Thanksgiving game while the Ravens will be playing in their first Turkey Day game in 12 years. The Bengals are also playing the Ravens in a Thursday game on the road for the third straight year, making them just the second team in NFL history to play the same team in a Thursday road game in three straight seasons, according to SI (The Bears did it against the Packers). This will actually be the fourth straight year that the Bengals have had a road prime-time game in Baltimore, but the 2021 game wasn’t on a Thursday. The Bengals would probably love to see the Ravens travel to Cincinnati for a prime-time game at some point.
11. Home sweet home for Titans. The Titans won’t have to leave Nashville during the month of November, thanks to the fact they’ll be playing FOUR straight home games. From Week 9 (Nov. 2) thru Week 13 (Nov. 30), the Titans play four home games, plus they have a bye sandwiched in there, so they’ll go five weeks without leaving Tennessee. This will mark just the eighth time over the past 34 years that a team has been given four straight home games (2021 Ravens, 2020 Steelers, 2016 Raiders, Dolphins, Packers, 2015 Titans, 2008 Texans). Of the previous seven teams to play four straight home games, six of them went either 4-0 or 3-1 during their homestand. Unfortunately for Tennessee, the only team that didn’t finish above .500 was the 2015 Titans, who went 0-4.
12. Chargers staring at rare divisional stretch to start the season. The Chargers will kick off the season with three straight games against divisional opponents (Chiefs, Raiders, Broncos), which will mark the first time in 37 years that L.A. has opened the year with at least three straight games against AFC West teams. The last time it happened came all the way back in 1988 when they opened the season against five straight divisional opponents.
13. Chargers will be racking up the frequent flier miles. No team will be doing more traveling this year than the Chargers. Jim Harbaugh’s team will be logging 37,086 air miles this season, which is not only the most in the NFL, but according to ESPN, it’s also the most mileage traveled by ANY TEAM since the NFL expanded to 32 teams back in 2002.
14. Panthers fans should be thrilled about Carolina’s Week 1 opponent. For the third time in franchise history, the Panthers will be opening the season against the Jaguars, which is notable, because the other two times it happened (2004, 2015), the Panthers ended up making it to the Super Bowl. Go put those Super Bowl bets in now, Panthers fans.
15. Rough road to start the season. There are only four teams in the NFL that will have to play their first TWO games on the road this year, and those teams are: the Panthers, Giants, 49ers and Buccaneers. Out of those four teams, the Giants are the only one that will be facing two divisional opponents (at Washington, at Dallas), so they could be in a huge hole in the NFC East before the season even gets to Week 3.
16. Rough road to end the season. There are six teams that will close out the season with two straight road games, and those teams are: the Cardinals, Ravens, Cowboys, Lions, Saints and Seahawks. The Lions and Cowboys are the only two teams that will face two divisional opponents in that stretch. Someone in the NFL scheduling department must really dislike the Seahawks, because this will mark the second straight season they’ve closed out the year with two straight road games. The Seahawks haven’t played a Week 18 game at home since 2022.
17. Bye, bye, bye to the Commanders The Commanders will be facing an NFL-high FOUR teams that will be coming off a bye this year, which is the most in the NFL. Last year, the 49ers were in that situation and they went 1-3 in the four games where they played against a team coming off a bye. This year, the 49ers will be playing ZERO games against teams coming off a bye, which is the fewest in the NFL.
18. Lions will be well rested for their games. The Lions have the second-most difficult strength of schedule, but there is one upside to their difficult slate of games: They have one huge advantage over everyone else and it has to do with rest. The Lions have a +13 rest differential this year, according to ESPN, which means they’ll be getting a total of 13 more rest days than their opponents. Not only is that the highest number for any team this year, but it’s also tied for the second-highest rest differential since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002. One big reason for the differential is because the Lions will be facing FOUR teams this season that will be coming off a Monday night game. The Lions are the fifth team since 2002 to get at least a +13 rest day differential. The other four teams won an average of 10.25 games per season.
19. Lions better not turn into road kill. The Lions will be well rested, but that might not help them during a season where they’ll be facing one of the most brutal road schedules in NFL history. The Lions have eight road games against teams that finished above .500 last season, which is the most by one team in a single season in NFL history. Those eight road games are against the Packers, Vikings, Eagles, Commanders, Rams, Bengals, Ravens and Chiefs. Ouch.
20. Three teams got shut out of prime time. When it comes to prime-time games, there are exactly three teams that didn’t end up landing a single night game: the Saints, Titans and Browns. The Browns do have one standalone game, and that will come when they face the Vikings in London, so that means New Orleans and Tennessee are the only two teams that won’t have a viewing window to themselves this season. Unfortunately for NFL fans, that means we won’t get to see Cam Ward in prime time unless the Titans get flexed into a game.
21. Extra long road trip. The Patriots, Ravens and Titans all have one big thing in common this year: They’re the only teams in the league that got scheduled to play three straight road games. NFL teams that have gotten stuck with a three-game road trip are a combined 34-35 on those trips since 2018. However, it’s been ugly over the last three seasons with 12 teams going a combined 12-24 on their three-game trips. That includes the Bills going 1-2 last year.
22. Lefties finally getting some love. When the Dolphins and Falcons meet in Week 8, Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. will likely be the two starting quarterbacks (barring injury). If that happens, it would become the first NFL game since 2006 to feature to left-handed starting quarterbacks. Nineteen years ago, Michael Vick’s Falcons beat Chris Simms’ Buccaneers in the last battle of lefties.

NFL schedule 2025: Who has the most standalone games? Cowboys, Chiefs and Commanders lead the way Jeff KerrHopefully you can impress all of your friends this weekend with your quirky knowledge of the 2025 NFL schedule.