Five primetime games means there’s two more openings for flex purposes, Sunday Night, Thursday Night, or Monday Night
The last couple of years have been a depressing tradition in NFL scheduling: the San Francisco 49ers get the BOGO treatment on Thursday Night Football, as in the maximum of two games a year, while some teams get one or none. This year, that tradition might be broken.
Thanks to a 2023 rule change, the 49ers were “beneficiaries” of having two prime time games on Thursday Night in 2023 and 2024. Before the rule change, every team did the Thursday Night thing once a season, and you can ask the players why, given how dangerous it is.
So far, the 49ers haven’t been slapped with the BOGO treatment. They have just one Thursday Night game for now.
The 49ers currently have five primetime games. Some may say it’s because the league loves them—but it’s really about ratings and merchandise. Something their fan base delivers in spades. Regardless, a team’s maximum number of primetime games in any given season is seven.
So that leaves two games the 49ers could get flexed into. That could be Monday, Sunday, or even Thursday Night, but the option is open.
There’s only one Thursday night game they could get pulled into because league rules prevent any team from playing more than two Thursday night games. Also, the league must give 28 days’ notice to fans and teams about the change. Finally, flexing can only happen twice between Weeks 13 and 17. That means the 49ers could get flexed in from the following games (Note: Week 14 is their BYE and Week 16 is Monday Night Football against the Indianapolis Colts):
Week 13 at Cleveland Browns
Week 15 vs. Tennessee Titans
Week 17 vs. Chicago Bears
Amazon is the broadcaster of Thursday Night Football, so they’d have to approve the flex, but looking at those three matchups there, I’d say the 49ers’ odds of escaping a second Thursday Night Football game are pretty good.
Of course, the schedule is just paper for now. The Titans or Browns could surprise us—or more likely, Shedeur Sanders ends up starting for the Browns and Amazon wants in.
That still leaves two games the 49ers could be flexed into. One could be Week 18 against the Seattle Seahawks. This very scenario happened in 2019 to conclude the season. You know it as where Dre Greenlaw did his best Dan Bunz impression. But that’s asking the NFC West to be decided that late in the season, and I think we would all rather have that locked up. As far as the other ones, I’m left scratching my head on what it could be.
Here are the flex rules from NFL.com. What do you see the 49ers getting flexed into?
Flexible scheduling is in effect during the following windows (the “Flex Scheduling Windows”):
For Sunday Night Football, it may be used up to twice between Weeks 5-10, and any week during Weeks 11-17;
For Monday Night Football it may be used any week in Weeks 12-17;
For Thursday Night Football it may be used up to twice between Weeks 13-17.
During the Flex Scheduling Windows, the games initially scheduled for Sunday Night Football (on NBC), Monday Night Football (ESPN or ABC), and Thursday Night Football (on Prime Video) are tentatively scheduled and subject to change;
Only Sunday afternoon games (or those listed as TBD) are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, Monday night, or Thursday night, in which case the initially scheduled Sunday, Monday, or Thursday night game would be moved to Sunday afternoon;
Sunday afternoon games may also be moved between 1:00 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. ET.