NFL Finalizes Details For Two Upcoming Games On Browns Schedule

Flexible late-season scheduling allows the NFL to place key games in popular time slots, and two Browns games are now scheduled.

The Cleveland Browns now know when and where they will play the two most important games of their home schedule.

The NFL officially announced Thursday that Cleveland’s Week 15 home opener against the Bears will be played on Sunday, Dec. 12. The 1pm game time was previously listed as TBA.

The league always leaves open the possibility of shuffling games later in the season, putting playoff-impact games in prime windows in late December and early January. That includes college football games that start on Saturdays, which aren’t packed that time of year.

With the announcement of a Cleveland-Chicago matchup, the NFL appears to have decided to part ways with the Browns in December. The clash with the New York Jets took place on Thursday night, the 28th.

Today was the deadline for the league to announce it would pull prime-time games, according to Brian Costello of the New York Post. Making Thursday night games more flexible is a new feature introduced to the league’s scheduling process this season. This is a move that comes from the 2022 Thursday night schedule, which ended with some one-sided or interesting games. Amazon play-by-play rep Al Michaels also joked about the product during an on-site report.

The matchup between the Browns and Jets could add some excitement to Week 16, as Aaron Rodgers started practice this week for the first time since tearing his Achilles tendon in New York. The former Packers QB remains on IR for now, but has begun a 21-day workout before he either returns to the field or ends his 2023 IR campaign.

Rodgers’ status will remain to be seen, but in the meantime, these details on the final two home games of the season should give Browns fans plenty of time to make plans for each game.