The NFL schedule release on May 14 will determine important factors such as bye weeks, rest advantages, and travel plans for the 2025 NFL season. However, we already know the matchups and locations for all 272 regular-season games, leaving only the timing as a mystery.
With that said, some games will be highly anticipated no matter when they occur. Ahead of the schedule release, let’s take a look at the 25 best games of the upcoming season.
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25. Vikings at Seahawks
Were the Minnesota Vikings right to move on from Sam Darnold for J.J. McCarthy? One game won’t answer that question, but Darnold will get his chance at revenge against the team he led to a 14-3 record in 2024. Minnesota didn’t appear to show much interest in bringing Darnold back this offseason, partially due to their first-round investment in McCarthy and partially because of Darnold’s back-to-back flops to end last season.
Minnesota and Seattle each reached double-digit wins last season, but have undergone notable turnover on both sides of the ball this offseason. As such, both will have a lot to prove, with a fairly wide gap between their perceived ceilings and floors for 2025. Seattle will also be seeking to exact some revenge on Minnesota, as a Week 16 home loss to the Vikings dealt a critical blow to the Seahawks’ playoff hopes.
24. Patriots at Titans
On the surface, this looks like a dud game between two teams that combined for a 7-27 record last season. However, while neither the New England Patriots or Tennessee Titans are likely to threaten the AFC’s elite this upcoming season, this game has intriguing storylines that make it an interesting progress check for each franchise.
The most obvious connection is between new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and the Titans. Vrabel led the Titans to a 54-45 record and three playoff appearances in six seasons, but reportedly had a strained relationship with team owner Amy Adams Strunk that in part led to his firing. In addition, this game pits two of the league’s most intriguing young quarterbacks, with each franchise making moves this offseason to support Drake Maye and Cam Ward.
23. Steelers at Jets
This game (and the one below it) makes the list under the assumption that Aaron Rodgers ends up with the Pittsburgh Steelers at some point before the 2025 season kicks off. That might be a bold assumption given the glacial pace of Rodgers’ decision, but it would give him an opportunity to face the team that unceremoniously dumped him after a dysfunctional 2024 campaign.
Rodgers had harsh words for new Jets coach Aaron Glenn over how he handled his release earlier this offseason. The ex-Jets QB claimed that Glenn disrespected him and went “a little rogue” in a brief and contentious meeting. If Rodgers signs with the Steelers, he and Glenn would have a chance to butt heads again, with the 41-year-old facing the talented defense he played with last year.
22. Packers at Steelers
Of course, Rodgers has much more history with his original NFL team. Rodgers has yet to face the Green Bay Packers since leaving after the 2022 season, as the Jets didn’t run into the Packers over the last two years. While he wouldn’t get to return to Lambeau Field, it would still pit Rodgers against Matt LaFleur and his successor Jordan Love.
There would also be a piece of history on the line for Rodgers. The Packers are the only team he hasn’t defeated as a starting quarterback. He could potentially become the fifth QB to defeat all 32 current franchises, joining Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Brett Favre.
21. Broncos at Eagles
Bettors shouldn’t expect a high total for this game. The Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in PFSN’s Defense+ metric last year. They were both elite defenses by any measure, as they were also the top two teams in yards per play allowed and EPA per play.
Both defenses also got first-round reinforcements in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Broncos took versatile Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron, potentially creating a fearsome top three of Barron, Pat Surtain II, and Riley Moss. And after years of going cheap at linebacker, the Eagles picked Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell to pair in the middle with the newly re-signed Zack Baun.
20. Packers at Cowboys
One of the NFL’s most historic rivalries has become extremely one-sided over the last decade-plus. The Packers have beaten the Dallas Cowboys five straight times and 10 of the last 11 matchups overall. That includes a 48-32 throttling in the 2023 Wild Card Game at Dallas, the last meeting between these teams.
The Cowboys have never beaten the Packers at AT&T Stadium, going 0-5 since Jerry World opened in 2009. That’s the longest home losing streak in Cowboys history against a single opponent. Dallas will have a chance to snap that ignominious streak again this season, while Love will return to the site of the best statistical game of his career.
19. Lions at Bears
After three wildly successful seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, Ben Johnson will try to bring his playcalling magic to the NFC North rival Chicago Bears. Johnson will become the latest coach to try and snap the Bears’ vexing inability to maintain offensive success. In 39 seasons since their only Super Bowl championship, the Bears have finished with a top-10 scoring offense just five times (and not since 2018).
MORE: Latest NFL Schedule Rumors and Leaks
The Bears went all-in on reshaping their offense to Johnson’s vision. Chicago will have an entirely new interior offensive line after acquiring Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, and Drew Dalman early in the offseason. Subsequently, Chicago spent its first two draft picks on offensive skill players in TE Colston Loveland and WR Luther Burden III. Any game against Johnson’s former team will serve as a measuring stick of how far the Bears’ offense has come.
18. Buccaneers at Rams
It’s easy to forget now, but Baker Mayfield’s career resurgence quietly started during his half-season stint with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Mayfield was traded away from Cleveland after the Browns acquired Deshaun Watson, then released in December of 2022 after a miserable seven-game stint with the Carolina Panthers.
Mayfield started four games for an injury-depleted Rams team at the end of the 2022 season and acquitted himself well. Two days after joining the Rams, Mayfield led a memorable Thursday Night Football comeback win over the Las Vegas Raiders. That gave him an opportunity to start for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where his career has since blossomed.
This will be Mayfield’s first matchup against Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay since his brief LA cameo three years ago, and both the Bucs and Rams loom as threats in the NFC hierarchy.
17. 49ers at Texans
The ever-growing Kyle Shanahan tree will see one of its branches in this matchup. DeMeco Ryans was the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator for two seasons from 2021-22, both years in which the Niners made the NFC Championship Game. San Francisco ranked top-10 in scoring defense during both of Ryans’ seasons as its DC, and finished top seven in PFSN’s Defense+ metric both seasons as well.
Ryans has brought his defensive acumen to the Houston Texans, who finished seventh in Defense+ in 2024. For the 49ers, this will serve as a good litmus test to see if the offense can return to its pre-2024 elite form in a difficult road contest against a terrific defense.
16. Commanders at Falcons
The Washington Commanders and Atlanta Falcons met in a critical Week 17 Sunday Night Football contest last year. A 30-24 Commanders win in overtime sealed a playoff berth for Washington and caused Atlanta to lose control of its destiny for the NFC South. As a result, the Buccaneers won their fourth straight division title, while the Falcons’ playoff drought extended to seven seasons.
That was just the second start of Michael Penix Jr.’s career. This time around, Penix and the Falcons offense should be better prepared for a rematch against reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels. Daniels’ mobility will also be a good test for the Falcons’ revamped pass rush, which added a pair of first-round rookies in Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr.
15. Chargers at Dolphins
Picked back-to-back in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert will always be compared and linked. This would be the fourth career head-to-head matchup, with the Dolphins winning two of the first three and every game being decided by one score.
Both Tagovailoa and Herbert have gotten paid, but questions persist as they approach their prime years. Neither has won a playoff game yet, though each has had statistically productive stretches at various points in their careers. The Dolphins and Chargers figure to occupy the same Wild-Card-contention neighborhood this season, so this should also have significant playoff implications.
14. Texans at Chargers
The Chargers exceeded expectations in their first season under Jim Harbaugh, going 11-6 and making the playoffs. However, the playoffs usually determine how we ultimately feel about a season, and the Chargers left behind an extremely bitter aftertaste in their 32-12 Wild Card disaster vs. the Texans.
More than just a measure of revenge for Los Angeles, this game also serves as a nice litmus test for Herbert and C.J. Stroud. Both the Chargers and Texans were top-10 defenses in PFSN’s Defense+ metric in 2024, while neither Herbert nor Stroud cracked the top 10 in QB+ despite their reputations as elite young building blocks.
Both organizations have spent resources to improve their respective quarterback’s supporting cast this offseason, so perhaps the advantage flips to the offenses in this year’s matchup.
13. Bears at Commanders
This game would make the list simply for the echoes of last year’s instant classic. Jayden Daniels’ 52-yard Hail Mary in Week 8 made Bears-Commanders arguably the best regular-season game of the whole season. Now, the top two picks from the 2024 NFL Draft are both set up to have stellar sophomore campaigns, making for an intriguing rematch.
Washington and Chicago experienced different levels of team success in 2024, but made similarly large investments in supporting their quarterbacks. The Commanders spent the equivalent of a first-, second-, and third-round pick to import offensive tackles Laremy Tunsil and Josh Conerly Jr., while we’ve already reviewed how the Bears remade their interior offensive line. Coupled with the pass-catching additions on both sides, this year’s contest should feature more scoring than last year’s 18-15 Commanders win.
12. Eagles at Buccaneers
It’s easy to forget, but there was a time early last season when the Philadelphia Eagles were in disarray and Nick Sirianni was on the hot seat. That angst peaked in Week 4, when the Eagles were walloped in Tampa Bay and fell to 2-2 after a 33-16 loss.
Of course, the Eagles turned out just fine. The Bucs remain the last team to beat Philly in a game where Jalen Hurts started and finished the contest. The Birds’ only other loss was in Week 16 at Washington, which Hurts left after a first-quarter concussion. This year’s matchup should be tighter, as both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were out for last year’s loss in Tampa.
11. Packers at Bears
The game’s most historic rivalry finally saw the Bears notch a win last season. Chicago won at Lambeau Field in Week 18, sending the Packers to the seventh seed and a Wild Card trip to Philadelphia instead of Tampa Bay. It also snapped an 11-game Packers win streak over the Bears, the longest by either team in the rivalry’s 104-year history.
However, Green Bay has still won six straight at Soldier Field dating back to the 2019 season. That’s one shy of tying the second-longest road win streak by either team in this series. On paper, the rivalry looks more even than it has in years with the Bears’ offseason improvements. Still, Chicago is firmly on “prove it” grounds against Green Bay until otherwise noted.
10. Lions at Commanders
The biggest upset of last year’s postseason came in the Divisional Round. After a 15-2 regular season that saw them earn homefield advantage, the injury-depleted Lions defense got shredded by Daniels and the Commanders in a 45-31 track meet.
This year, Washington won’t sneak up on anyone as a top-tier NFC contender. Detroit’s defense shouldn’t be as helpless as they were in the playoff matchup, when it notched zero sacks, zero turnovers, and forced just one Commanders’ punt. The Lions were a top-five defense in PFSN’s Defense+ metric prior to their late-season injuries and will be eager to demonstrate that after Daniels and the Commanders embarrassed them on their home turf.
9. Ravens at Bengals
Either matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens could go in this spot after last year’s high-scoring classics. The Ravens narrowly won each matchup — 41-38 in overtime at Cincinnati, and then 35-34 in Baltimore on Thursday Night Football.
Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow combined to pass for 17 touchdowns and one interception in their head-to-head matchups in 2024. Injuries have limited the number of Jackson-Burrow matchups over the years — they’ve been in the same division since 2020, but have only managed to start and finish a game against each other six times. Any football fan should hope for both to stay on the field in 2025, particularly when facing each other.
8. Rams at Eagles
The Eagles enjoyed one of the most dominant postseason runs ever in 2024. Philadelphia finished with a plus-68 point differential in four playoff games, the eighth-best in the Super Bowl era, trailing for a grand total of five minutes and 43 seconds in the postseason.
The one team to push Philly was the Rams, who had a golden opportunity for the go-ahead touchdown before Jalen Carter shut the door. After retaining Stafford and adding Davante Adams, the Rams once again look like one of the biggest threats to the Eagles.
However, this will be an important litmus test for LA’s run defense, which Saquon Barkley eviscerated for 460 yards, 8.8 yards per rush, and four rushing scores (all 60+ yards) in their two matchups last season.
7. Lions at Chiefs
The last few games on this list will mostly feature a round-robin between a few of the inner circle Super Bowl contenders. While that makes for some redundancy, it’s a huge treat that this year’s scheduling rotation features not only the typical conference rivalries but also some phenomenal inter-conference matchups between the elite teams in the AFC and NFC.
One of those matchups is Lions-Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. This matchup announced the opening of Detroit’s Super Bowl window, as the Lions surprised many by defeating the Chiefs on the road to open the 2023 season. If not for the Lions’ blown 17-point lead in the NFC Championship Game, Detroit and Kansas City would have also met in the final game of that season. Two years later, it remains a strong possibility that the two sides could meet up in Super Bowl 60 after all.
6. Ravens at Bills
The last two MVP winners have had eerily similar careers. Josh Allen and Jackson were both first-round picks in 2018 who have experienced every measure of individual success…except for a Super Bowl appearance. The Bills and Ravens rank first and second, respectively, in most wins over a seven-year span without reaching the Super Bowl, thanks to the Chiefs roadblock in the AFC.
Jackson has won two of the three regular-season head-to-head meetings, including a 35-10 thrashing in Week 4 last year. However, Allen and Bills knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs, as Allen has won both playoff matchups against Jackson. Both share a common goal of dethroning Kansas City, but also stand in each other’s way. As always, this figures to be a critical game in determining homefield advantage in the AFC.
5. Lions at Eagles
The NFC Championship Game that many expected never materialized due to Detroit’s Divisional Round loss. Still, the Eagles and Lions have been circling each other as the NFC’s elite for a few years now. Over the past three seasons (including the playoffs), the Eagles lead the NFC with 45 wins, while the Lions rank second with 38.
Strangely, however, they’ve only met once in that span — a 38-35 Eagles win in the 2022 season-opener. Neither team had announced itself as a contender at that point. The Lions were coming off a 3-13-1 campaign, while Hurts had a shaky 2021 season that cast doubts about his viability as a long-term franchise quarterback.
Both franchises are in very different places now, making this the first matchup where both will see each other as threats to reach the Super Bowl.
4. Chiefs at Bills
While the annual Chiefs-Bills matchup is always must-see TV, the regular-season version has a bit of an anti-climactic feel to it now. Allen and the Bills are 4-1 against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the regular season, winning each of the last four matchups dating back to 2021. That includes last season’s 30-21 thriller at Orchard Park, which was the only Mahomes start the Chiefs lost until the Super Bowl.
The subtext for this matchup is the Chiefs’ playoff ownership of the Bills. Kansas City is 4-0 against Buffalo in Mahomes-Allen playoff matchups, which colors how we view the regular-season series between these teams. Chiefs-Bills will once again be critical for determining the AFC’s top seed, but Buffalo finally getting over the playoff hump (which might as well be Mount Kilimanjaro at this point) is the only thing that truly matters in this series.
3. Eagles at Bills
Allen and Hurts have only faced off once, but it was one of the more memorable regular-season games in recent years. In 2023, the Eagles eked out a 37-34 overtime thriller in Philadelphia, with Hurts scoring the walk-off rushing touchdown to win it. Allen and Hurts each had multiple passing and multiple rushing touchdowns, marking the first game in NFL history where both starting QBs did that.
Now, the elite dual-threat quarterbacks will meet for the first time in Buffalo in a potential Super Bowl preview. The Eagles have largely dominated the AFC in recent years, winning nine straight by an average of 9.7 points per game. This will be a far stiffer test, though, and figures to get a standalone spotlight wherever it falls on the schedule.
2. Ravens at Chiefs
The Ravens didn’t even get a chance to take down the Chiefs last season after falling short in the Divisional Round. Unlike Buffalo, Baltimore still has to prove it can beat Kansas City on a regular basis in the regular season. The Chiefs have won four of the five Mahomes-Jackson regular-season matchups, in addition to the only playoff game between the two-time MVPs (the 2023 AFC Championship Game in Baltimore).
The Chiefs have won all three matchups at Arrowhead Stadium, including last year’s 27-20 thriller to kick off the 2024 season. This has typically been a September game, as four of the five Mahomes-Jackson regular-season contests have occurred in Week 3 or earlier. The other was in Week 14, so scheduling this year’s game in the middle of the season would give the matchup a different feel.
1. Eagles at Chiefs
The final game of the 2024 season tops our list for the best games of 2025. Super Bowl rematches aren’t particularly rare, but that doesn’t dampen the excitement for seeing if the Chiefs can avenge one of their worst losses in Mahomes’ 133 career starts.
The Chiefs remade their offensive line after Mahomes took a career-high six sacks despite never being blitzed the whole game. Notably, the Eagles also won the last regular-season game between these teams in 2023 — a 21-17 Monday Night Football nail-biter at Arrowhead Stadium.
Hurts can join Burrow as the only QBs to beat Mahomes three straight times, and he would be doing so with all three matchups being on the road or at neutral sites.