The Chiefs' High Number of Prime-Time Game Raises Eyebrows

The Kansas City Chiefs will again be the National Football League's golden goose, as nearly half of their games this season are in prime-time slots. Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports analyzed the NFL's schedule and does not believe it is an overreaction to feel the Chiefs have too many prime-time games.

"The Chiefs are a ratings juggernaut and are fun to watch every week. That being said, the NFL gave the team that has won three Super Bowls over the last six seasons too much exposure. This year, the NFL decided to give the Chiefs seven prime-time games -- the most in the league. The Chiefs are playing in five prime-time games over the first eight weeks, tied for the most of any team in NFL history," Kerr said.

Kerr noted that while the Chiefs may have too many prime-time games, the fact that they play several of the best teams in the league warrants it.

"In fairness to the Chiefs, they have a loaded schedule of quality opponents. The [Philadelphia] Eagles, [Buffalo] Bills, and [Baltimore] Ravens are part of the Chiefs' schedule gauntlet, along with the [Detroit] Lions and [Washington] Commanders. There's five potential prime-time games, but the Chiefs ended up having just two of them on the prime-time slate," Kerr said.

"The [Los Angeles] Chargers (Brazil game), [New York] Giants, and [Jacksonville] Jaguars were three of the five prime-time games in the first eight weeks. Did the NFL really need to make Chiefs-Giants and Chiefs-Jaguars prime-time games? Couldn't they fall into the Sunday afternoon slate in favor of a better matchup?"

Kansas City has been the league's top team over the last five seasons or so, and football fans agree, as they tune in to watch the Chiefs at a high rate. Although they were given a lot of prime-time games this season, it makes sense from a business standpoint, and the NFL is certainly a business.

"The Chiefs also play on Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is also part of their standalone slate (Christmas also counts as a prime-time game since the Chiefs are the night game). Kansas City actually has 10 standalone games, or 58.8% of the regular-season schedule. Kansas City is in the national window too much, but the Chiefs deliver massive ratings. The NFL clearly used high ratings as part of its scheduling formula for networks this year," Kerr said.

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