SUPER BOWL CHAMPION CHIEFS WILL OPEN REGULAR SEASON AT HOME AGAINST RAVENS IN AFC TITLE GAME REMATCH
NEW YORK (AP) — The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will open the regular season at home against the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 5 in a rematch of the AFC title game, the NFL announced Monday.
The NFL will release the entire 2024 season schedule on Wednesday night on the NFL Network.
The Chiefs beat the Ravens 17-10 in the AFC championship game in January and went on to defeat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime in the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs-Ravens opener at Arrowhead Stadium will be a Thursday night game on NBC. The Chiefs are favored by three points, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs will be going for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title and fourth in six years this season. Mahomes is 4-1 in his career against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.
Kansas City will begin the season at home for the second straight year and is 9-2 in openers under Andy Reid. The Chiefs lost 21-20 to Detroit in their 2023 opener.
In addition to Mahomes, the Chiefs bring back star tight end Travis Kelce, who agreed to a $34.5 million, two-year contract extension last month, and All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, who signed a five-year, $158.75 million deal in March.
Led by Jackson, the two-time MVP, Baltimore had the best record in the NFL last season and was the top seed for the AFC playoffs. The Ravens beat the Houston Texans 34-10 in the divisional round before undisciplined play and a couple interceptions by Jackson doomed them against the Chiefs.
The Ravens will have a different look when the teams meet in the opener. Derrick Henry, the second-leading rusher in the league for Tennessee last season, signed with the Ravens in March and gives the team a pounding running back to complement the elusive Jackson. Ravens running backs had just six carries in the AFC title game.
The Ravens have won seven of their last eight Week 1 games.
2024 NFL SCHEDULE TO BE RELEASED MAY 15
You can watch the schedule release on NFL Network, NFL.com, the NFL app and NFL+.
The National Football League announced that the 2024 NFL Schedule powered by AWS will be released on NFL Network, NFL.com, the NFL app and NFL+ at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 15.
NFL Network’s coverage is highlighted by “Schedule Release ’24 Presented by Verizon” at 8 p.m. ET which breaks down the 2024 NFL regular season schedule, division by division, analyzing the top matchups and primetime games. Rich Eisen and Colleen Wolfe host the three-hour show, joined by Maurice Jones-Drew, Michael Robinson and Cynthia Frelund.
Featured guests on “Schedule Release ’24” include:
NBC “Sunday Night Football” play-by-play broadcaster Mike Tirico
CBS play-by-play broadcaster Jim Nantz
ESPN “Monday Night Football” play-by-play broadcaster Joe Buck
Prime Video “Thursday Night Football” play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels
Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson
NFL vice president of broadcasting Mike North
NFL.com and the NFL app will provide complete team-by-team and weekly schedules of all regular season games, listing opponents, sites and times.
A special two-hour Schedule Release edition of “Good Morning Football” airs on Wednesday beginning at 7 a.m. ET on NFL Network, with hosts Jason McCourty, Peter Schrager, Kyle Brandt and Sherree Burruss. The 2024 International Games will be revealed during the show ahead of the full schedule announcement Wednesday evening. The Emmy Award-winning “Good Morning Football” returns to its weekly Monday-Friday schedule this summer, with further details to follow.
Additional coverage is provided by “NFL GameDay View: Schedule Release” at 10 p.m. ET on the NFL Channel and YouTube, a one-hour show hosted by Patrick Claybon, Cynthia Frelund and Gregg Rosenthal analyzing the 2024 NFL schedule. The NFL Channel is available on the NFL App on Mobile and CTV, FAST streaming platforms such as Peacock, Roku, PlutoTV, Vizio WatchFree, Tubi, LG, Xumo Play, TCL and Plex, and at NFL.com/nflchannel. “NFL GameDay View: Schedule Release” will also air at 11 p.m. ET on NFL Network.
NFL+ will offer fans exclusive content with “Secrets of the Schedule,” which features key decisionmakers from around the league sharing insights into creating this year’s schedule. Fans will also get exclusive insights into their respective teams’ win/loss record with “Projected Team Win Totals presented by Courtyard by Marriott” featuring Cynthia Frelund, who shares her projected win total for each NFL team.
ESPN will also have a two-hour primetime special highlighting the release of the 2024 regular season schedule on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and simulcast on ESPN+. Host Kevin Negandhi along with Dan Orlovsky, Marcus Spears, Mina Kimes and Adam Schefter anchor the coverage, with multiple guests expected.
Individual game tickets will go on sale immediately through Ticketmaster, the Official Ticketing Partner of the NFL, once each game is announced. Tickets will also go on sale through SeatGeek and Sports Illustrated Tickets, members of the NFL Ticket Network. For more information, visit NFL.com/tickets.
The NFL uses the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its schedule-making process. There are approximately a quadrillion possible schedule combinations each NFL season and over 26,000 factors to take into consideration such as stadium availability, travel requirements, primetime games, competitive fairness and division rivalries. The NFL uses AWS to run high performance computing workloads to find the best possible schedule each year. For more information, click here.
Courtyard by Marriott is also helping fans traveling to games find accommodations in close proximity to each respective NFL stadium with a new hotel booking button on the NFL.com schedule page. The button will direct fans to recommendations for nearby Courtyard by Marriott hotels, or other hotels within the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio, during the specific game weekend they are attending.
BUCCANEERS SAFETY ANTOINE WINFIELD JR. AGREES TO FOUR-YEAR, $84.1 MILLION CONTRACT
Antoine Winfield Jr.’s steady rise to stardom with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has prompted a massive pay day.
The safety agreed to a four-year, $84.1 million deal with the Bucs on Monday, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. The deal includes $45 million in guaranteed money and makes him the highest-paid defensive back in the NFL, marking the first time in league history that such a title belongs to a safety.
Winfield certainly deserves the deal. He’s earned one Pro Bowl nod (2021), and after being robbed of All-Pro honors in previous years, he finally secured one in 2023, drawing Defensive Player of the Year votes along the way.
Winfield recorded a career-high six forced fumbles — including two that saved the Bucs from allowing touchdowns — in a 2023 campaign that saw him start in all 17 games, logging 122 tackles, six sacks, three interceptions and 12 passes defensed, all of which also standing as career-best totals.
As faces have changed in Tampa Bay’s secondary, Winfield has remained the constant, delivering consistent production that has often swung games in the Buccaneers’ favor. He received the franchise tag in early March from the Buccaneers, and on Monday he became the latest tagged player to agree to a long-term deal, leaving Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins as the only player tagged in 2024 without a multi-year extension in place.