The NFL will be releasing its 2020 regular and preseason schedule on their network on primetime tonight and, as one would guess, there’s a few leaks already.
One rumor that is circulating is that the league will play all of it’s interconference games in Weeks 1-4 so if the season is shortened, those games – which figure the least when it comes to division and conference tiebreakers – would be the easiest to sacrifice.
So, the new rumor this morning on Twitter is that the NFL schedule is *not* set up with interconference games in Weeks 1-4 so they can easily be cancelled.
If not, I hope there is *some* sort of contingency for the possibility of postponing/cancelling part of the season.
— Aaron Schatz ? (@ASchatzNFL) May 7, 2020
The New York Giants, if that rumor holds true, would play the AFC North – Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati in the first four weeks.
The Giants play Pittsburgh and Cleveland at MetLife Stadium and Baltimore and Cincinnati on the road.
That would mean that their six division games (versus Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington) would be played in the final 13 weeks. Also on the Giants schedule: Arizona, San Francisco and Tampa Bay at home with the L.A. Rams, Seattle and Chicago on the road.
The Giants have the seventh-easiest schedule based on their opponents’ combined 2019 win-loss percentages. The Giants’ 2020 opponents were a collective 123-132-1 (.482) in 2019. By contrast, the Baltimore Ravens (.438) have the “easiest” schedule, while the New England Patriots (.537) have the most difficult path in the league.
Earlier this week, the NFL announced they would not be playing any games outside of the United States this year due to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.