You don't usually see a primetime game get flexed during the first half of the season, but that might actually happen this year. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NFL is considering whether to flex the Eagles-Commanders game out of Sunday night in Week 8. The NFL loves to put NFC East teams in primetime because of the markets involved, but with the Eagles at 2-3 and the Commanders at 1-3-1, the league might not want to keep the matchup there.
Under NFL rules, any flex for Week 8 has to be announced at least 12 days in advance, so the league has until Oct. 20 to make a decision. That means both teams will get to play one more game before the league decides whether to flex the matchup. The Eagles are hosting the Panthers this week while the Commanders are traveling to San Francisco to face the 49ers on Monday night.
If the Commanders lose to the undefeated 49ers, that would drop them to 1-4-1, and since they have a bye in Week 7, that means Washington would go into the Sunday night game with just one win and the NFL would likely prefer not to see that. As for the Eagles, if they were to lose on Sunday, that means they'd definitely have a losing record going into the Week 8 game (After facing the Panthers in Week 6, the Eagles play the Cowboys in Week 7 before facing the Commanders). If the NFL is looking to flex the game, the league's big problem is that there aren't many great options.
Let's check out the best games on the Week 8 schedule and why they probably won't work: One other thing the NFL would have to work through is that CBS and Fox are both allowed to protect a game from being flexed. Now that we've covered the big games, here's the rest of the Sunday afternoon slate in Week 8: As you can see, there's just not a great option in that group. The NFL could try to do something crazy like moving the Bills-Ravens game to 4:25 p.m.
ET and flexing Chiefs-Broncos to primetime, but that would take some serious behind-the-scenes shuffling, and as we mentioned, the Chiefs are on SNF in Week 7, so they might not be a viable candidate to be flexed back there in Week 8. It could make sense to move Browns-Steelers, especially since this is Aaron Rodgers' final season, but Pittsburgh is playing on Sunday night in Week 10 against the Bengals, so that could throw a wrench in that plan. Based on all the options, the NFL might just be stuck with keeping Commanders-Eagles in primetime.
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