In recent years, the announcement of the NFL schedule has become an event unto itself. Teams relish the opportunity to hype and humor fans about their upcoming season. Furthermore, it's a chance to energize younger viewers and fans by jumping on the latest trends and memes.
After numerous leaks and teases, the NFL schedule for 2023 was released at 8pm on May 11. Soon after, most teams revealed their individual schedules with pre-recorded videos. However, no all of these videos were made equal and we're here to break down the best, and the worst, of the league's 32 schedule announcements.
The Best Of The 2023 Schedule Announcements
The Chargers won the schedule announcement for the second year in a row. After debuting their reference-filled anime announcement in 2022, the Chargers ran it back with another anime announcement this year. As with 2022, the highlight of 2023 was the absolute shade thrown at one opponent. Last year it was a joke about not making a joke about the Browns. This year, it was putting up information about gambling addiction when revealing a game against the Lions.
Other notable announcements included DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart "eating the schedule" for the Colts. Meanwhile, the Broncos concluded their trilogy of The Office parodies, featuring Peyton Manning and The Office's Angela Kinsey. Elsewhere, the Jets tasked Geogussr god "Rainblot" to uncover their schedule while the 49ers employed the skills of rapper Locksmith.
The Worst Schedule Announcements of 2023
Let's start with the Eagles and Cardinals. Neither team produced a schedule video this year, with both opting to produce a Twitter thread instead. The Eagles compared their opponents to cute dogs while the Cardinals went with Spotify tracks. Very tame, very boring. The Eagles turned it into a video but still, low-effort work.
The Commanders, Lions, and Buccaneers all did videos around the joke of "what if we AI-generated the schedule release" but unfortunately, it appears that AI doesn't know what comedy is. Meanwhile, the Raiders did a video that looks exactly like the sort of thing that the head office forces its employees to make in order to look "cool". As for the rest of the league, there were some videos that were fun enough but didn't exactly wow you. Honorable mention goes to to Saints and Jaguars for making videos with the exact same premise of "here's the guy who scripts the NFL". Regardless, what was your favorite video? Are you excited about the NFL season? Let us know in the comments