2023 NFL season
The regular season began on September 7, 2023, with defending Super Bowl LVII champion Kansas City losing to Detroit in the NFL Kickoff Game, and ended on January 7, 2024.
The playoffs started on January 13 and concluded with Super Bowl LVIII, the league's championship game, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on February 11, 2024.
Kansas City defeated San Francisco to become the first team since the 2004 New England Patriots to successfully repeat as Super Bowl champions.
On March 13, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2023 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2022 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit.
The division pairings for 2023 were as follows:[83] Four interconference gamesAFC East vs. NFC EastAFC North vs. NFC WestAFC South vs. NFC SouthAFC West vs. NFC North Interconference game by 2022 positionNFC East at AFC WestNFC North at AFC NorthNFC South at AFC EastNFC West at AFC South Highlights of the 2023 season included:[84][85] As part of new media agreements that were signed by the networks in 2021, the league's flexible scheduling system expanded this season to include Monday Night Football games, and increased the number of cross-flexing (switching) of Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox.
[98][99][100][101] In May 2023, league owners passed flex scheduling rules for Thursday Night Football as well, only as a trial basis for this season.
[102] In 2023, any Monday Night Football game was allowed to be flexed between weeks 12 and 17, provided that the league announced its rescheduling no later than 12 days before the contests.
[208][209][210] He reached an agreement in May 2023 to sell the Commanders to a group headed by Josh Harris, owner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils, for $6.05 billion.
[211] The group has 20 limited partners worth a combined $100 billion, including Mitchell Rales and Magic Johnson.
[212][213] The sale was the highest price ever paid for a sports team and was unanimously approved by the NFL on July 20, 2023.
[214][215] On April 21, the NFL suspended three players indefinitely (Detroit wide receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C. J. Moore, and Washington defensive end Shaka Toney), and two players for six games (Detroit wide receivers Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill) for violations of the league's gambling policy.
[216] On June 29, the NFL suspended three additional players indefinitely (Indianapolis cornerback Isaiah Rodgers and linebacker Rashod Berry, and free agent defensive lineman Demetrius Taylor) for betting on league games in 2022.
This is his first head coaching position; he previously served as the Baltimore Ravens special team coordinator for eleven seasons.
In fifteen seasons with the New Orleans Saints, he compiled an overall record of 152–89 (.631), with nine playoff appearances, seven NFC South division titles, and a Super Bowl championship.
[229] Saturday, a 6-time Pro Bowler who played thirteen seasons as a center in the NFL (twelve of them for the Colts), and consultant for the team, was named interim head coach.
[240] Cowden, the team's vice president of player personnel, served as interim GM for the rest of the season.
[242] Kelly, the team's assistant general manager, would serve as interim GM for the rest of the season.
[313] This is the second season of a 12-year deal with Amazon Prime Video and Twitch to exclusively stream Thursday Night Football.
Peacock's game was sold on a stand-alone basis, as the league separated it from the broader TV rights deals.
[326][327][328] This marked the first time that an NFL playoff game is exclusively carried nationally by a streaming platform.
[336] DirecTV declined to renew its exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which it held since the package's debut in 1994.
EverPass distributes NFL Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, and other commercial venues via non-exclusive agreements with existing cable and satellite providers.
Recently retired defensive end J. J. Watt joined The NFL Today studio team for select appearances.
[344] ESPN replaced Steve Levy with Chris Fowler on the number 2 team with Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick and Laura Rutledge during Monday Night Football doubleheaders and ESPN+ exclusive international games.
[346] Al Michaels was replaced by Noah Eagle as the secondary play-by-play man for Sunday Night Football.
2023 marks the first time that Michaels did not call a single NFL game for NBC since it picked up the SNF package in 2006.
Nearly into the end of the regular season, Taiwan's ELTA Sports [zh] has become exclusive home for NFL through both OTT & Chunghwa Telecom MOD platform.
