NFL schedule guru Mike North explains quirks in Bears’ 2024 slate

Kamil Krzaczynski/AP

The Bears’ 2024 schedule is … interesting.

They’ll play the entire AFC South before facing an NFC North foe for the first time — in Week 11.

Of their last eight games, six are within their division.

They have a stretch of three consecutive home games followed by three consecutive road games.

What gives?

NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North explained the situation, which is not unique to the Bears. The Steelers also don’t play a division game until Week 11, and the Vikings have three consecutive road games followed by three consecutive home games in the same span that the Bears do.

“We certainly didn’t set out to not have any division games [early in the season],” North said Thursday on a video conference with reporters. “It feels like a college basketball schedule, the nonconference games first. It wasn’t intentional, but also it wasn’t necessarily something that we looked at and thought was unfair.

“There is a legacy from the Howard Katz [former senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations] years of running the scheduling process: It’s division games late in the season. It’s always something we’re looking for, not forcing it in other than Week 18. More division games late in the season usually means fewer teams have clinched playoff spots.”

North noted the competitiveness of division games as a reason for having them late in the season. Even if a team is eliminated, there are plenty of examples of upsets, such as the Lions eliminating the Packers two seasons ago and the Titans eliminating the Jaguars last season. Still, North said the league probably will examine such heavy division scheduling for next year.

The Bears haven’t played three consecutive road games since November 2008, when they faced the Packers, the then-St. Louis Rams and the Vikings. The Bears went 1-2 in that stretch, then swept a three-game homestand, but they lost the finale to finish 9-7 and out of the playoffs.

But North said this three-game trip — against the Lions, 49ers and Vikings in Weeks 13-15 — might not feel like one.

“We talk about three-game road trips as though it’s the worst thing you can do to a team,” he said. “I’m not sure that that’s true. I think sometimes it’s who you play, not where. We could break up somebody’s three-game road trip by taking away that third road game and giving them a home game against Kansas City or San Francisco. Is that really better?

“You think about this three-game road trip for the Bears from a competitive standpoint, the first one is Thanksgiving. Then you get that 10-day break before that second game. And then the third game is on a Monday night. So you actually get extra days between Games 1 and 2 and then 2 and 3. I hope they don’t look at that schedule and think that it was unfair.”

From a broadcast perspective, the Bears appear in prime time once through Week 14, then twice in three weeks. They’ll share “Monday Night Football” in Week 15, when they visit the Vikings on ABC and the Falcons visit the Raiders on ESPN. The three total appearances are down one from last season.

It’s more telling that the Bears have just one game in the 3:25 p.m. Sunday slot — Week 14 at the 49ers on Fox — and there’s a chance it won’t be distributed as widely as Bills-Rams in that window. The time slot, either on Fox or CBS, has been the most-viewed on TV for years. Last season, the Bears were scheduled for three such appearances and finished with four.

The Bears certainly weren’t a favorite among the schedule-makers. Their top team is the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, who are the new Cowboys to NFL broadcasters. With Netflix airing two games on Christmas Day (a Wednesday), the Chiefs will play every day of the week except Tuesday, when there are no games.

Remote patrol, NFL schedule version

The Jets have six prime-time games in the first 11 weeks of the season, as the NFL hopes to capitalize on quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ return to health. He lasted four snaps last season before tearing his Achilles, ruining the league’s Jets-heavy prime-time schedule.

“Yes, it's an awful lot of prime-time games early in the season, but obviously, I feel like the Jets kind of owe us one,” North said.

• The Packers have four consecutive prime-time appearances in Weeks 13-16 — NBC on Thanksgiving (Nov. 28), Prime Video on Dec. 5, NBC on Dec. 15 and ESPN on Dec. 23.

• The NFL said it will play two Christmas Day games in 2025, when the holiday falls on a Thursday. Netflix will carry one in the afternoon and Prime Video one at night.

BEARS’ 2024 SCHEDULE

Sept. 8 vs. Titans, noon, Fox 32

Sept. 15 at Texans, 7:20 p.m., NBC 5

Sept. 22 at Colts, noon, CBS 2

Sept. 29 vs. Rams, noon, Fox 32

Oct. 6 vs. Panthers, noon, Fox 32

Oct. 13 vs. Jaguars (London), 8:30 a.m., NFL

BYE WEEK

Oct. 27 at Commanders, noon, CBS 2

Nov. 3 at Cardinals, 3:05 p.m., CBS 2

Nov. 10 vs. Patriots, noon, Fox 32

Nov. 17 vs. Packers, noon, Fox 32

Nov. 24 vs. Vikings, noon, Fox 32

Nov. 28 (Thu.) at Lions, 11:30 a.m., CBS 2

Dec. 8 at 49ers, 3:25 p.m., Fox 32

Dec. 16 (Mon.) at Vikings, 7:15 p.m., ABC 7

Dec. 22 vs. Lions, noon, Fox 32

Dec. 26 vs. Seahawks, 7:15 p.m., Prime Video

Jan. 4/5 (Sat/Sun) at Packers, TBD

All games on ESPN 1000