The Packers' 2023 schedule is weirder than you think
The NFL released the full 2023 schedule on Thursday, and the Packers' slate features more oddities than usual.
The annual pomp and circumstance manufactured for the equivalent of a calendar release finally arrived Thursday night when the NFL unveiled the official 2023 schedule.
As has become an annual tradition, seemingly every sportswriter breathlessly "analyzed" the order of the games and the related travel logistics for their team coverage. This, of course, ignores that any fan that actually cares enough to check a schedule for games that take place five or more months in the future can decipher that information without assistance.
For anyone who didn't tune in for the schedule release, here is the Green Bay Packers' schedule for the 2023 regular season:
As a reader of The Leap, most of the big details will already stand out to you. So rather than simply recite what a highly invested audience already knows, this edition of the newsletter will focus on the weird (but not necessarily less important) quirks of the schedule.
Networks protected if Packers' new QB flops
Few teams can claim to draw larger national audiences than the Packers over the past three decades. With rare exception, Green Bay has played at or near the maximum number of premium TV slots -- prime-time games and those with exclusive NFL windows such as Thanksgiving morning -- every year since the team returned from irrelevance in the early 1990s. That remains true in 2023 with six such appointments on the initial schedule.
However, the schedule makers did not evenly distribute those premium games. After the back-to-back prime-time dates in Weeks 4 and 5, the Packers don't appear in an exclusive TV window again until late November. For essentially the entire middle third of the season, they only kick off in the noon or afternoon windows.
While such schedule quirks can happen purely by accident, the NFL had plenty of reason to backload Green Bay's prime-time dates. With Jordan Love replacing Aaron Rodgers as the full-time starting quarterback, no one can tell whether the Packers will actually field a compelling football team in 2023. That includes the team's leaders who, despite the praise they've heaped on Love, won't actually know what they have in the 2020 first-round pick until he plays.
If Love shines, the Packers will remain in those prime-time slots. However, if he flops, the networks have recourse. Starting in Week 13, the league can flex teams in or out of Sunday Night Football. Likely not by coincidence, Green Bay's matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs landed in that exact spot in 2023. If NBC predicts a bloodbath because Love doesn't appear up to snuff, the league will move another tilt into prime time. The same applies to the Packers' Week 17 game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Leap to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.