The NFL’s 1995 expansion twins went in opposite directions on 2018 schedule release day. The Jaguars suddenly moved into a spotlight that’s surprisingly strong even in the wake of their AFC championship game run. By comparison, the Panthers entered a blackout.
Those two teams stand out among the best, worst and weirdest of the new NFL schedule.
NFL SCHEDULE: Prime-time games | International games
Best, worst of 2018 NFL schedule
Best
The Jaguars are a marquee team. Starting immediately, they'll be basking in attention the chronically nondescript franchise rarely gets. In Week 1 they go to New York to play the Giants, who are on their second head coach since they ran off Tom Coughlin — now the Jaguars' vice president — after the 2015 season. They play the Steelers at home on "Sunday Night Football" in Week 11; they beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the regular season and the playoffs. They play the other two teams they faced in the AFC playoffs, at Buffalo in Week 12 and at home against the Patriots in Week 2. And in arguably their first highly anticipated London game, they face the Eagles in Week 8 — the team they would have played in Minneapolis in February had they held their fourth-quarter lead in Foxborough.
JAGUARS' UNIFORMS: Check out Jacksonville's new look
No date was circled at the moment of the schedule’s release faster than the Titans’ Week 10 home game against the Patriots was circled by Malcolm Butler. Bill Belichick benched Butler in the Pats' Super Bowl 52 loss to the Eagles, for still-hazy reasons. Butler signed with the Titans in the offseason. Dion Lewis also left the Patriots for Tennessee in free agency. Former Patriots player and coach Mike Vrabel coaches the Titans. Their combined chips will never outweigh Butler’s.
The Raiders will open at home against the Rams on Monday night in Jon Gruden’s return to coaching. They don’t face another 2017 playoff team until Week 13 . . . again at home, against the Chiefs. The Chargers, their AFC West rival, play three playoff teams in a row to start the season, then none until, also, Week 13, in Pittsburgh.
Worst
Where's Cam, as in Cam Newton, one of the league’s most prominent, recognizable faces, the MVP three years ago when the Panthers reached the Super Bowl, a top jersey-seller his entire career? Newton’s Panthers made the playoffs last year and have a fair chance to go back again this year, yet he and his team will play in prime time just twice in 2018. That’s three fewer than Jimmy Garoppolo. The first isn’t until Week 11, on a Thursday night, in Pittsburgh. The second is a Monday night in Week 15 against the Saints in Charlotte, a rematch of their wild-card game last January. Is it him, or the stench of the franchise being sold by its disgraced owner, or some combination of the two? Either way, it’s bizarre.
PANTHERS SCHEDULE: Carolina still a player in NFC
The Buccaneers’ first four games before their Week 5 bye are at the Saints, the Eagles and Steelers at home, and at the Bears. After the bye they’re at the Falcons, then get the likely still-awful and possibly winless Browns. Is there a head coach in the league who needs a hot start more than Dirk Koetter, and does he have the least chance to get one? A nervous bye week is not out of the question.
The Seahawks play exactly two home games in September and October. The Rams don't play at home for one solid month late in the season; one week is a bye, one game is in Mexico City and the other two are 10 a.m. PT starts in Detroit and Chicago.
Weirdest
The first game of the regular "Thursday Night Football" schedule sends the Ravens to Cincinnati against the team whose last-minute touchdown in the season finale in Baltimore knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs and put the Bills in. Tyler Boyd might need to keep his head on a swivel.
Alex Smith’s first three games in Washington are against teams whose quarterbacks combined to play nine games in 2017 — at Arizona (Sam Bradford, two games), the Colts at home (Andrew Luck, zero) and the Packers at home (Aaron Rodgers, seven). His Chiefs replacement, Patrick Mahomes, starts his season with four road games in his first six weeks: at the Chargers, Steelers, Broncos (with Case Keenum) and Patriots. One of the home games is against the Jaguars.
The Colts get to greet their almost-head coach Josh McDaniels when they go to New England in Week 5 on Thursday night. Seattle welcomes back Richard Sherman in Week 13 on Sunday night when the 49ers visit. And the Patriots and Steelers play in Pittsburgh again in Week 15 … under different “catch” rules than last season.
