Lions-Bills game in Week 15 may get flexed to primetime
The Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills were both expected to be good this season, hence why their Week 15 matchup was put into the 4:25 ET window for CBS's marquee game on that Sunday afternoon (Dec. 15).
Both teams have delivered on preseason expectations so far. The Lions are 9-1, and the Bills are 9-2 coming off a Week 11 win over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
Responding to an inquiring about something he mentioned on his podcast regarding the Lions-Bills game, Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network further reported the expectation the game will be flexed into Monday night, Dec. 16, in Week 15.
It isn't protected yet. There's a window for this process, but the expectation is it will be.
— Justin Rogers | Detroit Football Network (@Justin_Rogers) November 22, 2024
Currently, there is a doubleheader scheduled for Monday night to close Week 15. The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears are scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET, followed by the Atlanta Falcons and Las Vegas Raiders starting at 8:30 p.m. ET. It feels like one of those games is ripe to be taken out of its primetime slot, and if possible both could be.
Will Lions-Bills be flexed into Monday night Week 15?
The NFL has expanded flex scheduling beyond Sunday night game, and on Friday the first flex of a game into a Thursday night game was announced, swapping Chargers-Broncos in for Browns-Bengals in Week 16. Per the rules, flexing a matchup into a Thursday night has to be done further in advance that most flex scheduling decisions (Friday was the deadline for Week 16).
The decision to flex a Sunday game to a Monday night has to be done 12 days in advance. So if Lions-Bills is going to be moved, it would have to be done by Dec. 3.
When the original schedule came out in May, it's a virtual certainty CBS protected Lions-Bills from being taken from them and scheduled in a primetime slot. They can protect the game again if it's wanted to be flexed to that Monday night, and if there's not a good alternative the network will surely do so.
So the easy "expectation" is that Lions-Bills at Ford Field will be moved to Monday night in Week 15. But it's not certain to happen, even if the league office wants it badly.
feed