This article is about the American football season in the United States. For the Gaelic football season in Ireland, see 2025 National Football League (Ireland).
The 2025 NFL league year and trading period will start on March 12. On March 10, teams will be allowed to exercise options for 2025 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2024 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams were required to be under the salary cap using the "top 51" definition (in which the 51 highest paid-players on the team's payroll must have a combined salary cap). On March 12, clubs will be allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with players whose contracts had expired and thus became unrestricted free agents.[1]
McCaskey was the owner of the Chicago Bears, assuming the position in 1983 following the death of her father George Halas. She won Super Bowl XX as team owner. She died on February 6, at the age of 102.[10]
The season is planned to be played over an 18-week schedule, beginning on September 4. Each of the league's 32 teams plays 17 games, with one bye week. The regular season is then scheduled to end on January 4, 2026; all games during the final weekend will be intra-division games, as it has been since 2010.[1]
Each team plays the other three teams in its own division twice, one game against each of the four teams from a division in its own conference, one game against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, one game against each of the remaining two teams in its conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division would play all three other teams in its conference that also finished fourth in their divisions), and one game against a team in another division in the other conference that also finished in the same position in their respective division the previous season.[11]
The division pairings for 2025 are as follows:[11]
Four interconference games AFC East vs NFC South AFC North vs NFC North AFC South vs NFC West AFC West vs NFC East
Interconference game by 2024 position NFC East at AFC East NFC North at AFC West NFC South at AFC South NFC West at AFC North
Highlights of the 2025 season are planned to include (unless otherwise noted) the following, with all specific teams and kickoff times to be announced at a later date in Spring 2025:
Thanksgiving: Three Thanksgiving Day games are planned to be held on November 27, with Detroit and Dallas expected to host the traditional afternoon doubleheader, and a primetime game with no fixed teams.
Christmas: Christmas Day, December 25, lands on a Thursday for the first time since the league expanded from a 16-game schedule to 17 games in 2021. It is thus expected that this will be the first time that the league will stage Thursday Christmas games, including one or two afternoon contests and the regular Thursday Night Football game. Prior to 2021, a Thursday Christmas Day normally fell on the final week of the regular season when the league preferred not to schedule any Thursday games that would have given teams a competitive advantage with more rest between it and the opening round of the playoffs.
Flexible scheduling rules
This will be the third season of the league's flexible scheduling system that includes Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and increased the amount of cross-flexing (switching) of Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox.[19][20]
NFL owners will vote on whether the flexible scheduling rules will continue to include Thursday Night Football. They were initially approved in 2023 on a trial basis, then carried over into 2024 after no Thursday games were flexed during that first season.[21] Under these rules, only two Thursday Night Football games can be flexed between weeks 14 and 17, teams are not allowed play two away Thursday games during the season, the same team can not be flexed into TNF both times, and the league is required to give a 28-day notice.[21]
Assuming the other flexible scheduling rules remain the same as in 2024, any Monday Night Football game is allowed to be flexed between weeks 12 and 17, provided that the league announces its rescheduling no later than 12 days before the contests. For Sunday Night Football, no more than two games could be flexed between weeks 5 and 10, while any game between weeks 11 to 17 could be flexed; the league was required to give weeks 5 to 13 SNF games a 12-day notice, and weeks 14 to 17 a 6-day notice.[22][23]
CBS and Fox are still able to protect games from being moved, whether from a change to another network or a change of the Sunday afternoon time slot. When the initial season schedule was created, the two networks select a limited number of games involving a specific number of teams from their respective conference. Otherwise every game can be initially scheduled on any network regardless of conference.[24] After the season starts, the two networks are allowed to protect one game each week from getting flexed.[19]
Postseason
The 2025 playoffs are scheduled to begin with the wild-card round, with three wild-card games played in each conference. Wild Card Weekend is planned for January 10–12, 2026. In the Divisional round, scheduled for January 17–18, the top seed in the conference will play the lowest remaining seed and the other two remaining teams will play each other. The winners of those games advance to the Conference Championship games scheduled for January 25. Super Bowl LX is scheduled for February 8 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
After a 4–8 (.333) start including a 6-game losing streak, Eberflus was fired as head coach on November 29, 2024, after being hired in 2022. During his two and a half season tenure, Chicago was 14–32 (.304) with no playoff appearances.[25]
Brown, the team's offensive coordinator, was named as interim head coach. This was his first head coaching position at any level. He finished the season with a 1–4 (.200) record.
Johnson, who spent the previous three seasons as the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator, was hired on January 21, marking his first head coaching position.[26]
Pederson was fired on January 6, after three seasons with the Jaguars. During his tenure, the team was 22–29 (.431), with one playoff appearance.[27]
Coen, who spent the previous season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive coordinator, was hired as the head coach on January 24. It is his first head coaching position.[28]
Pierce was fired on January 7, after one and a half seasons with the Raiders. During his tenure, the team went 9–17 (.346) with no playoff appearances.[29]
Carroll was hired on January 25. He has eighteen seasons of experience as head coach of the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks, with a combined record of 170–120–1 (.586), twelve playoff berths, two Super Bowl appearances, the Super Bowl XLVIII championship, and an overall playoff record of 11–11 (.500). Carroll was also head coach of USC for nine seasons, accumulating a record of 97–19 (.836) and two national championships. At 73 years old, Carroll will become the oldest head coach in NFL history.[30]
Mayo was fired on January 5, after one 4–13 (.235) season with the Patriots.[31]
On January 12, the Patriots hired Vrabel as their new head coach. As the head coach of the Tennessee Titans from 2018 to 2023, he compiled a record of 54–45 (.545), with three playoff appearances and a 2–3 (.400) playoff record.[32]
After a 2–7 (.222) start including a 7-game losing streak, Allen was fired on November 4, 2024, after two and a half seasons as the team's head coach. During his tenure, the Saints were 18–25 (.419) with no playoff appearances.[33]
Rizzi, the team's special teams coordinator, was elevated as interim head coach. He finished the season with a 3–5 (.375) record.
Saleh was fired as head coach on October 8, 2024, with a 20–36 (.357) record (2–3 in 2024) after being hired in 2021.
Ulbrich, the team's defensive coordinator, was named interim head coach.[35] This was his first head coaching position. He finished the season with a 3–9 (.250) record.
Glenn was hired on January 22 after spending the previous four years as the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. This is his first head coaching job at any level.[36]
McCarthy's contract was not renewed by the Cowboys on January 13 after five seasons together. During his tenure, the team went 49–35 (.583), with two NFC East division titles in three overall playoff appearances, and a playoff record of 1–3 (.250).[37]
Schottenheimer, who served as Dallas' offensive coordinator for the previous two seasons, was hired as the head coach on January 24. It is his first head coaching position.[38]
Douglas was fired on November 19, 2024, after six seasons.
Savage, the team's senior personnel advisor, was named interim GM. Savage previously served as general manager of the Cleveland Browns from 2005 to 2008.[40]
On January 25, the Jets named Mougey, former assistant general manager of the Denver Broncos, as the new general manager. He previously served for the Broncos from 2012 to 2024 in various executive roles.[41]
Telesco was fired on January 9, after only one season.[42]
Spytek was hired on January 24, previously serving as the vice president of player personnel from 2021 to 2022 and assistant general manager for the past two years, both positions with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is his first general manager role.[43]
Carthon was fired on January 7, after two seasons.[44]
Borgonzi was hired on January 17. He previously served for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2009 to 2024 in various executive roles and in the final three years as the assistant general manager.[45]
Stadiums
This will be the final season in which the Buffalo Bills will play their home games at their current Highmark Stadium, as their New Highmark Stadium is scheduled to open for the 2026 season, after which the old Highmark Stadium will be demolished.[46]
Sunday afternoon games are split between CBS and Fox. Both networks will continue to carry the Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC packages, respectively. Each network is scheduled to air ten doubleheaders, with both networks airing one in Week 18 and another week yet-to-be announced. When the initial schedule is created, CBS and Fox will be able to specify a limited amount of games involving teams from their respective conference that they want to air, but otherwise the league was free to schedule games regardless of conference.[48] On Thanksgiving, Fox will have the early Detroit game and CBS the late Dallas game.[47] CBS also has the option of producing alternative broadcasts of select games on Nickelodeon.[47] Fox also has the option to air a Christmas game.[49]
ESPN will continue to produce Monday Night Football and the doubleheader on the last Saturday of the season. Select MNF games and the Saturday doubleheader will be ESPN/ABC simulcasts. Three weeks will feature two MNF games split between ABC and ESPN.[47][50][51] Selected games will also feature the alternative Manningcast on ESPN2.[52]
This will be the fourth year of a 12-year deal with Amazon Prime Video and Twitch to exclusively stream Thursday Night Football.[53] This will also be the third season that Prime Video/Twitch will stream the game on the Friday after Thanksgiving under the title Black Friday Football.[54]DirecTV has an agreement with Amazon to distribute Thursday Night Football games to business establishments.[55]
Peacock will simulcast NBC's games.[47] This will also be the third season in a six-year deal that the platform will exclusively stream one selected regular season game.[56] Peacock's exclusive game was distributed to business establishments via Peacock Sports Pass on EverPass Media.[57]
ESPN+ will simulcast select games on ABC, including games being simulcast on ESPN, as well as select Manningcasts.[47] This will also be the fourth year of a 12-year deal that the platform will exclusively stream one selected regular season game.[58] ESPN+'s exclusive games will be distributed to business establishments via the ESPN+ for Business package on DirecTV.[59]
Paramount+ will simulcast in market and national CBS games.[47]
Netflix will exclusively stream at least one Christmas Day game in 2025, in its second year of a three-year deal.[60]
This will be the third season out of a seven-year deal that the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market sports package will stream on YouTube TV, as well as on YouTube's Primetime Channels service as a standalone subscription option.[61]DirecTV and EverPass Media will also distribute NFL Sunday Ticket to business establishments.[62][63][64]
The league's streaming service NFL+ will continue to live stream in-market regular season and postseason games on mobile devices only, radio broadcasts for all games, most out-of-market preseason games and a live stream of NFL Network on its base tier, and replays of games along with a live stream of NFL RedZone on its premium tier.[65]
Postseason
All four broadcast partners will air at least one Wild Card round game, with CBS and Fox airing a AFC and NFC Wild Card game, respectively. NBC will air the Sunday night game under the fifth year of its seven-year deal.[66][67][68] ESPN/ABC will broadcast the Monday night Wild Card game, its last in a five-year deal.[69][70] Fox will air a second NFC Wild Card game as part of its rotation with CBS and NBC. This will also be the second postseason that Amazon Prime Video will exclusively stream a Wild Card playoff game under a multi-year deal.[71][72]
This will be the third season that all four broadcast television partners air one divisional playoff game per season (ESPN/ABC, Fox, CBS, and NBC).[73]
↑ Reedy, Joe (February 6, 2022). "Super Bowl/Olympics Sunday about to become routine for NBC". Associated Press. Retrieved February 15, 2022. When the NFL's 11-year television contract starts in 2023, NBC's spot in the Super Bowl rotation lines up the same year as the Winter Olympics.
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