The 2025 schedule has arrived for the Atlanta Falcons and it is filled with highs and lows. On the bright side, the dirty birds are currently slated to appear on prime time television five times next season. However, with prime time contests comes short rest. On top of this, the Falcons have the earliest possible bye week, taking place just five weeks into the season.
The topic came up on The Morning Shift on 92.9 The Game, a local Atlanta sports show, and the crew did all three hours on the Falcons schedule. One member who was particularly offended by the schedule release, was ex-Falcon Mike Johnson.
“It seems ridiculous, scheduling conflicts all over this thing I’m talking about Sunday night games on the west coast backed up by primetime games the next week, travel situations, you don’t have, and we used to love this, you don’t have any opportunity for like a two or three week stretch where you get to settle in at home for the home games.” Johnson said.
Prime Time On The West Coast
In his rant, Johnson referenced the late night games on the west coast. These games include a Week 2 Sunday Night Football game to kick off the prime time schedule early in the season. This game will be played in Minnesota against the Vikings, before the team turns around and heads up the east coast to pay the Carolina Panthers a visit.
The team catches a break Week 6 after a bye when they take on the Buffalo Bills at home on Monday Night Football. But it is quickly undone when the team makes one of the longest possible trips in the league to take on the San Francisco 49ers on six days rest.
The Travel Continues Over Seas
After back to back games against AFC East opponents in Weeks 8 and 9, the last of which take place in Foxboro, Massachusetts against the New England Patriots, the dirty birds head to Berlin. A ten hour flight to cover about 10,000 miles, round trip, to take on the Indianapolis Colts.
The Morning Shift reported that Atlanta will travel 25,947 miles in the regular season, the sixth most of any team.
“I’m not gonna go out there and say well it’s one of the hardest in the NFL, but the NFL did no favors, and I know we’re not shocked, they did no favors to this organization with this schedule when you mix in travel and opponents,” Mike Johnson concluded.
Rough Bye Week Draw
As previously mentioned, the falcons received the earliest bye week possible. This is not ideal for multiple reasons. First and foremost, by Week 5 your body simply has not taken as much damage as it will towards he dog days of the year. Secondly, this means Atlanta will be playing 13 straight weeks of football to round out the schedule.
However, Matt Urben of the Falcons Wire remains optimistic that the early bye week might be a good thing after all.
“The Falcons’ early schedule won’t be easy, but they have an early bye week to make up for it,” wrote Urben. “Atlanta’s bye comes in Week 5, giving the team extra time to prepare for its Monday night showdown versus the Bills in Week 6. The Falcons had a late-season bye week last season, which didn’t seem to help as they played their worst football down the stretch. Perhaps an early bye will better serve the team in 2025.”
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