The New England Patriots will kick off their 2019 season the same way they have five other times in the past: raising a new Super Bowl banner at Gillette Stadium.
While that “tradition” will live on in early September, another one will be halted. New England will not play in the season-opening “Thursday Night Football” tilt typically reserved for the reigning Super Bowl champion. Instead, the Patriots will begin their title defense Sunday night.
Given it will be a Week 1 primetime clash, NFL schedule makers likely will pit New England against another high-profile team. In his latest Football Morning in America column published Monday, NBC Sports’ Peter King used some process of elimination to try to project who will be the Patriots’ first opponent of the upcoming season.
From King:
a. I doubt the Patriots’ foe will be Cleveland. The Browns are the sexiest team of the offseason, of course. But my experience as a schedule-watcher is that the league might want to save Browns-Pats for a little later in the season, while giving the Browns a national Sunday-nighter at home (Steelers at Browns?) early in the season to capitalize on local fervor.
b. I doubt the Patriots’ foe will be Kansas City. Two years in a row the Chiefs have played in prime time at New England on NBC; a third is unlikely, though not impossible. The other networks will be clamoring for Brady-Mahomes after NBC got the first Brady-Mahomes match in 2018.
c. Jets? Not impossible, with Le’Veon Bell providing some glitz. But there’s no guarantee the Jets will be good, so I’m iffy on that one.
d. Steelers? Could be. No reason not to, especially since CBS has had the last two meetings of the teams on doubleheader Sundays. Also could be a big Thursday-nighter for FOX.
e. Cowboys? That’d be my guess. Pretty good team, pretty good attraction. A good headliner for the first Sunday of the season, and ratings gold because of Dallas, but hardly one of the great games of the season.
Aside from the Patriots and Cowboys being two of the league’s most historic franchises, the NFL could be appealed by the rarity of the matchup. The two teams haven’t squared off since the 2015 season, which served as just their 12th head-to-head contest dating back to 1971.
But as can be seen in the excerpt from King above, there’s certainly no shortage of exciting options for the Patriots’ season opener.
