The NFL week is not one event. It is five separate broadcast windows sold to five different owners, and the app you need on Sunday depends on the hour your team kicks off rather than on which service reviews best. Every game on the current slate is below, with the kickoff time in ET and the route into it. The list is rebuilt every Tuesday, once Monday night closes the previous week.
Week 2 · September 17–21 · times in ET
This week's games — and the app that carries each one
Featured games — swipe ›
at Buffalo BillsThu 8:15 p.m. ETHow to watch ›Jacksonville Jaguars
at Denver BroncosSun 4:05 p.m. ETHow to watch ›Las Vegas Raiders
at Los Angeles ChargersSun 4:05 p.m. ETHow to watch ›Washington Commanders
at Dallas CowboysSun 4:25 p.m. ETHow to watch ›Indianapolis Colts
at Kansas City ChiefsSun 8:20 p.m. ETHow to watch ›New York Giants
at Los Angeles RamsMon 8:15 p.m. ETHow to watch ›You will stay on this site
| Game | Kickoff |
|---|---|
| Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills | Thu 8:15 p.m. ET |
| Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Philadelphia Eagles at Tennessee Titans | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Green Bay Packers at New York Jets | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Cleveland Browns at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| New Orleans Saints at Baltimore Ravens | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Cincinnati Bengals at Houston Texans | Sun 1 p.m. ET |
| Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos | Sun 4:05 p.m. ET |
| Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers | Sun 4:05 p.m. ET |
| Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys | Sun 4:25 p.m. ET |
| Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals | Sun 4:25 p.m. ET |
| Miami Dolphins at San Francisco 49ers | Sun 4:25 p.m. ET |
| Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs | Sun 8:20 p.m. ET |
| New York Giants at Los Angeles Rams | Mon 8:15 p.m. ET |
Kickoff times can move. Updated every Tuesday.
How the week splits up
The league sells its schedule in slices, and each slice has exactly one owner. Finding the slice is faster than searching the matchup, because the owner does not change mid-season.
| Window | Who carries it | Free without paying? |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday night | Prime Video | Only inside a new Prime trial |
| Sunday 1 p.m. ET | CBS and FOX, regional | Yes, on an antenna, if it is your market's game |
| Sunday 4:05 and 4:25 p.m. ET | CBS and FOX, the late doubleheader | Yes, on an antenna, and the 4:25 game is usually national |
| Sunday night | NBC and Peacock | NBC is free on an antenna, everywhere |
| Monday night | ESPN, part of the slate simulcast on ABC | Free only on the weeks ABC carries it |
Two of those five windows are free to anyone with a $25 antenna. That is the single most useful fact on this page.
Which of these games you actually get
Sunday afternoon is regional, and this is where most of the confusion starts. CBS and FOX do not show the same game in every city. Each network picks which matchup goes to which market, your local affiliate carries that one, and the rest of the slate is simply not on your television.
Three rules cover almost every case:
- Your market gets your team. If the local team plays at 1 p.m., that is the game on your CBS or FOX affiliate.
- One network gets a doubleheader each week. CBS and FOX alternate, so on some Sundays you get two games from one network and a single game from the other.
- The 4:25 p.m. game is usually national. It is the marquee afternoon window and it goes out to most of the country.
Anything outside that is out-of-market, and out-of-market Sunday afternoon games live inside NFL Sunday Ticket. No free route reaches them. Primetime is the opposite: Thursday, Sunday night and Monday night go everywhere, which is why those three windows are the easiest to plan around.
The free route, window by window
- Sunday afternoon. An antenna. Your local CBS and FOX affiliates carry the games your market is assigned, live and complete, at no recurring cost. Which antenna your address needs depends on how far the towers sit and what your walls are made of.
- Sunday night. An antenna again. Sunday Night Football is on NBC, and NBC is a broadcast network, so the same hardware picks it up nationwide.
- Monday night. Check the fixture first. When the game is simulcast on ABC, the antenna gets it. When it is ESPN-only, there is no free path.
- Thursday night. Prime Video only, and only inside a 30-day trial for a new Prime member. There is no broadcast backup for this window.
Stacking trials works for a few weekends and then stops working, because none of them reset. The antenna is the only route on this list that is still free in December.
If you are only keeping one app
Most people do not want five subscriptions. They want the one that covers the window their team lives in. This is the honest match.
| Your team plays mostly... | Keep | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday afternoons, in your own market | An antenna, and nothing else | $20 to $40, once |
| Sunday afternoons, out of market | NFL Sunday Ticket | Season pass, the most expensive route here |
| Sunday nights | An antenna for NBC, or Peacock through Walmart+ | $0, or $12.95 a month |
| Thursday nights | Prime Video | $14.99 a month after the trial |
| Monday nights, on ESPN-only weeks | The ESPN app | About $29.99 a month |
Prices move every season and every one of these renews automatically. The antenna is the only line in that table that never bills you again.
Before kickoff
- Find your team's window in the table above before you open any app. The window decides the app, never the other way round.
- Run the channel scan on your TV on a quiet weekday, not twenty minutes before kickoff.
- Write down once which channel numbers map to CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC, and keep the note near the remote.
- Start a trial on the day of the game you care about, not a week early.
- Put the renewal date in your calendar the moment you type in a card number.
- Check whether your carrier, Walmart+, Instacart+ or your cable provider already includes an app you are about to pay for.
Common questions
Why does this page change on Tuesday?
Monday night closes the week. Refreshing the slate before that would list a game that has already been played, so the table is rebuilt on Tuesday morning with the new fixtures.
Kickoff times moved. Which one is right?
The league flexes primetime games during the season, usually announcing the change a couple of weeks ahead, and the times here come from the official schedule feed, so they follow the flex. If the time here and the time on your TV guide disagree an hour before kickoff, trust the TV guide.
My team is not on any channel I have.
Then it is an out-of-market game for you. The options are Sunday Ticket, a sports bar, or the radio call. No app carries it for free.
Can I watch every game this Sunday?
Not without paying. A live TV bundle plus Sunday Ticket is the only combination that reaches all of them, and it runs well past $100 a month across the season.
Where do the highlights go when the game ends?
The NFL Channel inside the free NFL app, plus Tubi and Pluto TV, all carry coverage, replays and highlights at no cost. What none of them carry is the live broadcast feed.