No one can be close to 100 percent sure that the 2020 NFL regular season will start as expected on Thursday, Sept. 10, but the league is releasing the full schedule Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on the NFL Network (and NFL app and NFL.com) in a three-hour show. There are contingency plans in place regarding the coronavirus pandemic, but those won't be made public unless necessary. Super Bowl 55 is scheduled for Feb. 7 in Tampa.
Much like with the NFL Draft, most of the schedule release will be virtual and "Schedule Release '20" will include interviews from the homes of NFL head coaches, general managers and other guests.
All five international regular-season games – four in London and one in Mexico City – have been canceled because of travel precautions. There's no way to know if fans will be allowed in NFL stadiums by September, but Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer has reported that teams estimate losing about $100 million each in local revenue if fans are not able to attend any regular-season games. It's also not yet clear if training camps will start on time.
The 2020 season is the last to feature 16 regular-season games as the league will go to 17 starting in 2021 as part of the new collective bargaining agreement.
SportsLine will have in-depth NFL schedule coverage, including team-by-team breakdowns. The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs currently have the highest Over-Under win totals at William Hill sportsbook of 11.5 each.
The NFL also plans to release the full preseason schedule by the end of this week. That slate is supposed to start with the annual Hall of Fame Game from Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6. The Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers are the opponents this year. According to a USA Today report, the Hall of Fame has five different contingency plans in place for the coronavirus, starting with the option of pushing the game and enshrinement ceremonies later in August.
Which teams sail past their projected win totals? What is the SportsLine model's stunning Packers prediction? And how many wins will every NFL team have this season? ... See every projected win total, including the shocking prediction for the Packers, all from an uncanny computer model that crushed its NFL win total picks last year!
