There’s no need for any NFL national television game maps from 506sports.com during Week 1 of the NFL preseason schedule. That’s because most games won’t be on national television. In fact, Week 1 doesn’t have a single game on one of the NFL’s television partners’ channels. That’s right, we won’t see any normal national TV booths after the Hall of Fame Game until Week 2 of the preseason. The good news is, fans can still watch NFL preseason games. Everyone will have in-market games on local stations and everyone will be able to watch four national preseason games next week. There’s a trend when we look at what channel these games will be ok (all times are Eastern Time Zone, and the home team is listed second).
Thursday, August 8th
7:00 p.m.
New York jets v. new york Giants, NFL Network
I wouldn’t expect many star players. Maybe we get to see Daniel Jones for an extended period of time. Sam Darnold won’t play more than a series if the Jets are smart. The battle for New York is often played on the last week of the preseason. The NFL moved it up this year.
10:00 p.m.
Los Angeles Chargers v. Arizona Cardinals, NFL Network
It’s our first look at the Cardinals new offense under Kliff Kingsbury. Arizona may not show us that much. David Johnson should be placed in bubble-wrap. Kyler Murray should get a few series at most and then he should be placed in similar bubble-wrap. The Chargers have an injury curse in the preseason so if they trot out Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram, or Philip Rivers, someone may have to storm the field to forcibly make sure no one gets hurt.
Friday, August 9th
7:30 p.m.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers v. Pittsburgh Steelers, NFL Network
Bruce Arians returns to Pittsburgh where he was once Ben Roethlisberger’s offensive coordinator. His coaching career kind of trended upward after he was unceremoniously dumped by the Steelers. This isn’t a revenge game because preseason games can’t be revenge games. The Steelers may not even play Big Ben. These first preseason games are becoming close to what we see in the fourth preseason games.
Saturday, August 10th,
9:00 p.m.
Dallas Cowboys v. San Francisco 49ers, NFL Network
The Cowboys go to Santa Clara to face the Niners. We’ll see if the Cowboys can convince Ezekiel Elliott to come back by then. The Niners may want to give Jimmy Garropolo some extended time during this game. He hasn’t taken a snap since his knee injury which occurred in the third game of last season.
That’s it. Those four games are all we get for Week 1. All four games will be on the NFL Network. This means that teams will have local personalities doing the announcing, reporting, and game as a whole. The NFL will take those feeds and rebroadcast them throughout the country.
That’s really it for Week 1. In Week 2, eight nationally televised games. That’s when football is really back.
