NFL SEASON 2022: What's New This Year?

After a wild six weeks of NFL action, the league has now shifted into offseason mode. Teams have now wrapped up playoff games and locked in their draft order for next spring. With that, we’ll now begin to analyze exactly what the new season will look like going forward. Applying hindsight to our vision of future possibilities is valuable when it comes to making better decisions in the present and future. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what we know about the 2022 NFL season:

The New NFL Year Starts on Monday, September 11, 2022
The next NFL season is likely to kick off around the middle of the month on Monday, September 11, 2022. By this point in time, the NFL season will have been ongoing since the start of the preseason on August 10. This will have been a long season for fans of all 32 teams across the league and it’ll likely have been another exciting and action-filled campaign. The NFL is set to make another huge change to the schedule in 2022, with the league’s schedule being pushed back one week on the calendar. As of right now, the 2022 regular season is slated to start on September 11, with a game being played 24 days later on September 17. However, it’s expected that the league will opt to move the season start to September 10. This change would mark the first time in the past 50 years that the regular season has begun on a different date. That’s all we know about the NFL season opening in 2022. Let’s take a look at what else is coming up in the next year.

The Opening Week of Games Is Sunday, September 17, 2022
The final week of the regular season in 2022 is shaping up to be particularly interesting. The opening week of the season sees the New York Giants hosting their bitter rivals, the New England Patriots, on Sunday, September 17. The Patriots and Giants have a storied rivalry in the NFL, with the two teams meeting four times this season. The Giants are likely to be the clear favorites to rock the Super Bowl 50-year-old trophy once again, but the Patriots could be in the mix if Tom Brady has a healthy season. The Patriots and Giants were both among the best teams in the league for much of the past season and both teams are expected to enter this game with something to prove.

The Patriots and Giants aren’t the only high-profile teams meeting in Week 1 of the 2022 season. The Denver Broncos will be hosting the Indianapolis Colts in an AFC matchup that could have a major impact on the playoff picture in the conference. The Broncos are likely to be playing at home, with the playoffs all but certain to start on Thursday night in Week 3.

There are also a number of matchups that we could see in Week 1 of the regular season in 2022. The Kansas City Chiefs will be visiting the Oakland Raiders in what looks like one of those potential trap games that this NFL season has seen too many of lately. The Steelers and Jaguars could also be worth watching as they will face off for the first time since the two teams got into a sideline scuffle in Week 17 of the 2019 season.

The last matchup to mention is the one between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions. The Bills and Lions have a rich history together in the NFL and the two teams have faced off for the past few seasons on Thanksgiving. As both teams are expected to be among the top contenders in the AFC by the end of 2022, there’s a good chance that we’ll see these two teams square off once again.

The Final Week of Games is Thursday, December 26, 2022
The final week of games in the 2022 NFL season is among the most interesting in league history. The December slate of games will feature three potential playoff rematches, a potential final game between two teams that never met in the postseason, and a pair of teams that could become new playoff darlings with a few key wins.

The Oakland Raiders will be hosting the New York Giants on Saturday, December 28. The two teams will be squaring off in Week 17 for the second time in a month, with the Giants winning the previous matchup by a score of 23-17. The Raiders and Giants are both expected to be among the teams battling for a playoff spot in the final week of games, making this matchup especially intriguing.

The two teams that could make the most waves in the final week of games in 2022 are the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Both teams are in excellent position to make a playoff push and the two teams have never met in the postseason. This game could represent the first time that the two teams have faced off in the league. The Texans will be hosting the Jaguars in Week 16 and it’s worth watching to see if the two teams start to jockey for playoff position.

Though the Texans and Jaguars look like the most likely teams to make a playoff push by the end of the season, they are not the only teams that could make a run in Week 17. The Chicago Bears will host the Dallas Cowboys in a potential wild-card matchup between two teams that have never met in the playoffs. The New York Jets are also in position to make a playoff push and could have one last chance to catch the Buffalo Bills as they host the Detroit Lions in a Week 17 game that could have major playoff implications.

Playoffs Begin December 27 and End January 2, 2023
The 2022 NFL postseason will feature eight teams competing for Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. The NFL playoffs will begin on Saturday, December 27 and will end with the Super Bowl on Sunday, January 2, 2023. The seeds for the playoffs were set on Sunday, December 18 after the conference championship games were played on Sunday, December 18. A total of eight teams will qualify for the Super Bowl at the end of the playoff season in 2023 and the matchups for those games will be set at the beginning of the postseason.

The playoffs begin with two wild-card games on Saturday, December 27. Those two games will be held on Saturday, December 27, with the remainder of the postseason games being played on Sunday, January 2.

The first round of the playoffs is scheduled to begin on Saturday, January 3 with the first two games of the day being played at 1:05 p.m. ET and 4:19 p.m. ET. The remaining first-round games will be played on Sunday, January 9 and the NFC and AFC Championship Games will be played on Sunday, January 10 at 6 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET.

The Super Bowl LIII will be played in Atlanta on Sunday, January 2, 2023 and will be televised by FOX. The game will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and tickets are expected to be very expensive for this event.

Super Bowl LIII is Played Sunday, February 3, 2023
The Super Bowl will once again be played on Sunday, February 3, 2023 and is likely to be a special event once again in Atlanta. The SuperBALL will once again be the centerpiece of Super Bowl week and there are several top-tier attractions that are expected to be part of Super Bowl week in Atlanta in 2023.

The NFL announced on Monday that Super Bowl LIII will be held in Atlanta on February 3, 2023 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The league announced that the New York City bid was unable to meet the league’s requirements for hosting the Super Bowl. The league cited the size of the stadium and the quality of local transportation as the two major factors that went against the bid from New York City.

Super Bowl LIII will once again be televised by FOX, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET. The game will be an open to the public event and tickets for the event are expected to be very expensive.

The Super Bowl is also expected to draw a huge amount of media attention to Atlanta, with many pundits picking it to be the best Super Bowl in years. There is also good reason to believe that this could be the final Super Bowl in Atlanta as the new NFL stadium is expected to open in 2023.