Over the past few years, ratings for ESPN’s Monday Night Football have been fairly hit-or-miss, at least partially because the network’s slate of games has not always been primetime-worthy.
With the NFL releasing its complete schedule last night, ESPN’s slate of games for the 2020 season has been revealed, and, on paper at least, it looks pretty promising.
2020 Monday Night Football schedule 🔥 #MNF pic.twitter.com/tvyKszWpGa
— ESPN (@espn) May 7, 2020
Highlighted by a Week 3 matchup of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs traveling to Baltimore to take on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, the Monday Night Football schedule is full of compelling matchups. You’ve got the high-flying Saints going to Vegas to take on the Raiders in their new home, Tom Brady coming to New York with the Bucs to take on a team that he’s struggled with in the Giants and the Seahawks traveling to Philly to take on the Eagles in a rematch from late last season.
The games look good, but they always do at this point in the year. As is the case every season, teams that are projected to be good turn out to stink or suffer injuries and teams that seem like they will be bad exceed expectations.
Also, thanks to the coronavirus, there’s really no way to know if this schedule will even be played as it is currently laid out. If the NFL is forced to change things, there’s a chance everything gets rearranged and teams will be forced to play chunks of their schedule based on divisional or regional matchups. Hopefully, that won’t happen, but it probably doesn’t make sense to be getting your popcorn ready for Mahomes-Jackson just yet.
“Since divisional games are essential to playoff seeding, they are the last games the league wants to cancel,” according to Danny Heifetz of The Ringer. “This year, there are nine divisional games in Week 1 and six in Week 2, but zero in Weeks 3 and 4. If the NFL is forced to cancel games, Weeks 3 and 4 may be canceled first.”
Hopefully it won’t happen, but if that rationale is correct, Chiefs-Ravens will be first up on the chopping block — whether ESPN likes it or not.
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