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1. Why Are Nfl Games Being Flex Ed Cheating Against
2. Why Are Nfl Games Being Flex Ed Cheating News
3. Why Are Nfl Games Being Flex Ed Cheating Scandal
4. Nfl Flexed Games

The NFL leaves the Sunday Night Football slot in Week 17 open every season, and flexes the most relevant game of the week into the window. With Week 17 typically being nothing but divisional matchups, this sometimes results in a winner take all game for a division title, or even in a win or go home game for a playoff spot.

The NFL’s Game Operations Manual even mandates that chain crews and players stand “well away” from the front stake during the measurement to allow stadium fans and television cameras to see it. These are the types of values that the NFL, as the steward of the game, must consider as traditions bump up against technology. The Indianapolis Colts got a shout-out from the Your Team Cheats website because of how the team “sucked for Luck” back in 2011. Indianapolis was about to allow future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, who had season-ending neck surgery that was thought, at the time, to be career-threatening, to enter free agency, and quarterback Andrew Luck was going to be the first overall pick of. No more than two games can be flexed to Sunday night over the course of the early flex period. If the NFL wishes to flex out a game in the early flex period twelve days in advance, CBS and Fox may elect to protect one game each from being moved to Sunday night. Flex scheduling does not apply to Thursday, Monday or Saturday games. The NFL can also move Sunday afternoon games between the 1 p.m. ET and the 4:05 p.m. In Week 17, the league can flex a game with playoff implications on six days’ notice. 22 hours ago  Kyle Yates’ Last-Minute Week 16 Cheat Sheet (2020 Fantasy Football). With the news that Keenan Allen will be a game-time decision, Johnson becomes an intriguing FLEX. Marcas Grant is joined by Kimmi Chex for a brand new NFL Fantasy Football Show! First, the duo discusses the week's biggest headlines including Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts' outstanding debut performance against the Arizona Cardinals, Tony Pollard making a run at the Dallas Cowboys top RB position, and Tennessee Titans QB Ryan Tannehill's dominant showing against the Detroit Lions. The NFL didn't wait long to start utilizing its option to flex games off Sunday Night Football. With a few injuries impacting the chances for some teams to be legitimate contenders, it's expected.

But the expansion of the playoffs this season hasn’t resulted in a glut of potentially meaningful games in Week 17. Only nine AFC teams are still in contention for the seven playoff spots as Week 15 comes to a close. In the NFC, that number is 12, but includes the four sub-.500 NFC East teams fighting for the division title. Five teams are fighting for the final three playoff spots outside of that division.

So, which game will we see in primetime in two Sundays? Unfortunately, the pickings are rather slim, because there really aren’t many games between two teams still in contention.

No Chance

Jets vs Patriots
Vikings vs Lions
Raiders vs Broncos

Jets-Patriots is the one Week 17 game where both teams have already been eliminated from playoff contention, so we’re not going to be seeing that one in primetime. Vikings-Lions and Raiders-Broncos will only be relevant to the playoff picture if results in both Week 16 and 17 go the way of the Vikings and Raiders – each team is two games back of the final playoff spot in their respective conference.

This Only Matters To One Of Us

Ravens vs Bengals
Jaguars vs Colts
Chargers vs Chiefs
Falcons vs Bucs
Saints vs Panthers
Titans vs Texans
Seahawks vs 49ers

These games feature a bunch of playoff contenders taking on teams far from contention. And while that’s all well and good, if any of these games are chosen, they could being largely meaningless by the time we get into primetime. Furthermore, the results of these games are relevant to one another. Say for instance, Titans-Texans is chosen as the primetime game. If the Colts were to lose earlier in the day, the result of the Titans game wouldn’t matter at all. That would not be an ideal situation for a Sunday Night Football game specifically flexed into this window. Besides, the NFL likes to have games like that all taking place at the same time to create a sense of chaos (which is good!).

So, The NFC East…

Cowboys vs Giants
Washington vs Eagles

Washington leads the division by a game over Dallas and New York, and a game and a half over Philadelphia. NBC and the NFL really have to be hoping that the division takes the decision out of their hands and Washington clinches the division in Week 16, because otherwise, the league could be in a situation where both of these games are unfortunately relevant. Because of how tight the NFC East is between these four teams, I’d think the NFL would want to have these two games going at the same time – unless Washington-Philly becomes a winner take all game for the division title, which would happen if Washington loses to Carolina in Week 16, Philly beats Dallas, and the Giants lose to the Ravens. But even if that happened, NBC would be looking at a game between a 6-9 team and a 5-9-1 team for all the marbles. Yikes.

Anything To Play For?

Dolphins-Bills
Steelers-Browns
Packers-Bears

The Bills have already clinched the AFC East, so they’d just be playing for seeding against the Dolphins. Miami is still in the playoff picture, and currently holds their playoff future in their own hands, but their situation could go either direction in Week 16. Furthermore, their playoff future is somewhat tied to that of the Ravens, and the league probably wouldn’t feel great about having one team play earlier than the other. As for Steelers-Browns, there’s a chance this could be a game for the AFC North crown – if it is, then this will 100% be the game chosen. If not, and it’s just a game between two playoff teams fighting for seeding (or Cleveland fighting for their playoff lives), the chance of it getting picked is far less. As for Packers-Bears, maybe the Packers are still fighting for the top seed, and maybe the Bears are still fighting for a playoff spot. Or maybe both of these questions were answered in Week 16, and this is merely a rivalry game without much on the line.

The Battle For Seeding

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Cardinals-Rams

These two NFC West teams currently occupy two of the three NFC Wild Card spots, and both could clinch spots in Week 16. If that happens, we’ll be talking about seeding with this game. If not, and the playoffs are still up for grabs, this could be of plenty of interest to a national audience. But again – so much of the Cardinals’ playoff future depends on the results of the Bears and Vikings. Would the NFL really want those teams playing potentially meaningful games hours before the Cardinals play their game?

The Decision

You really can see why the NFL waits so long to make their choice, can’t you? There are several potentially interesting games on the docket, but those games could be completely meaningless depending on results in Week 16. We’re not going to get a decision this week (and I wouldn’t be shocked if the announcement came during Week 16’s Titans-Packers game on SNF, thanks to the Week 16 MNF matchup between the Bills and Patriots having little on the line), but if I had to make the call right now, I’d probably end up going with Washington-Eagles or Steelers-Browns.

However, it’s not a guarantee that there will be a flex. Back in 2017, with there being several playoff scenarios similar to what we’re seeing this year, the NFL opted to move five games into the late afternoon window and leave the Sunday Night Football slot empty. This led to a frantic 4 PM ET window, and if there are several games with some meaning in two Sundays, it wouldn’t shock me at all if the league decided to give NBC the week off and banked hard on more chaos in the late afternoon.

Sunday Night Football has historically been the best of the prime time broadcasts, but even they can sometimes end up with a dud – or at the very least, miss out on the best match up of the day. Luckily, flex scheduling can help with that.

It feels like this year the playoff spots are more up for grabs than they’ve been in a long time, which is saying something for a league with the most season-to-season parity of any of the major American team sports. Because of that, there will be more meaningful games on Sundays than usual, and obviously not all of them are going to get prime time billing.

Still, there are a few shakeups that could be made to ensure that we as a national audience get to hear Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels call a really interesting and exciting game. Based on how the league stands right now, prior to Week 5, here are five games that deserve to flexed into Sunday Night Football.

Scheduled SNF game: Giants at Broncos
Game that should be flexed: Steelers at Chiefs

I cannot say this with enough emphasis: GET THE GIANTS OFF OF MY TELEVISION. This is no disrespect to Giants fans (yes it is) but seriously, they are horrendous. Their coach is a hot mess, Odell Beckham gets flagged for absolutely everything he does and is still the best player on the team by a large margin, and despite a world of issues on all sides of the ball, Eli Manning manages to remain their biggest scapegoat. No thanks.

Give me all of the Chiefs games until further notice. Andy Reid’s predictably horrific clock management in the last two minutes of the game almost cost the Chiefs their win over Washington in Week 4, and while that may be terrifying for Kansas City fans, it’s truly thrilling to observe. Plus any game that features Kareem Hunt and Antonio Brown is a must-watch.

Scheduled SNF game: Raiders at Dolphins
Game that should be flexed: Cardinals at 49ers

The Dolphins and the Raiders were both supposed to be contenders this year. Unfortunately, their seasons have been underwhelming , to say the least. Neither team currently looks like they’ll be able to pull of a return to the playoffs, and if Derek Carr isn’t back on the field by then, we’ll be getting a heaping prime time helping of EJ Manuel versus Jay Cutler. Boo.

The NFC West has provided some of the best games of the season through Week 4, and while the Niners are 0-4, they’ve actually been quite entertaining. They’ve lost each of their last three games by a total of nine points, all of them coming down to the wire – and they were three consecutive divisional match ups. At this point, every intra-NFC West game is worth putting on national television until further notice.

Scheduled SNF game: Patriots at Broncos
Game that should be flexed: Texans at Rams

Am I the only one that’s tired of the Patriots vs. Broncos “rivalry” at this point? Yes, the Broncos are the one team in the NFL that can say that they’ve owned Tom Brady throughout his career, but without Peyton Manning, the hype just feels forced. They’re two pretty unlikable organizations from a national fan perspective, and because the Broncos play their home games in the Mesosphere, things always get a bit wonky – and not in a good way.

Deshaun Watson and Jared Goff. Aaron Donald and J.J. Watt. DeAndre Hopkins and Todd Gurley. Come on, do I have to say anything more? This is the future of the NFL. These teams could conceivably see each other in a Super Bowl in the not-too-distant future. Out with the old and in with the new.

Scheduled SNF game: Eagles at Seahawks
Game that should be flexed: Patriots at Bills

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Why aren’t the Eagles interesting? I can’t figure it out, but they aren’t. I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve seen them play one minute of football so far this season. If I’m going to watch the Seahawks in prime time, there are so many other teams I’d prefer to watch them play – particularly this late in the season.

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THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THE BILLS ARE IN FIRST PLACE IN THE AFC EAST, PEOPLE. The division is literally theirs to lose at this point, which is crazy. Now yes, there’s still a lot of football to be played between now and Week 13, but the Patriots have already lost two home games and are in hashtag struggle mode. Not only is this shaping up to be a great divisional match up with major playoff implications, this is about as good as it gets in terms of elite offense vs. elite defense.

Nfl Flexed Games

Scheduled SNF game: Cowboys at Raiders
Game that should be flexed: Rams at Seahawks

I’m not here to make the argument that the Cowboys get way too much prime time scheduling. They do, but that’s an issue for another time. At the end of the day, this just isn’t an interesting match up. Cross-conference games in Week 15 don’t belong on Sunday Night Football when there are battles for playoff spots happening all over the league.

The Rams have won four of their last six games against the Seahawks, and those were all when the Rams were really bad and the Seahawks were pretty good. Now they’re more evenly matched than they’ve been in recent memory – and again, the NFC West just has a knack for delivering exciting games. If the Rams are going to solidify themselves as legitimate contenders going forward, a late-season statement win in Seattle would be the best way to do it. And we should all be able to watch it.