Yesterday the NFL released the schedule for the upcoming 2020 season. A new trend in the past few years has been the teams announcing their schedules via social media. Some teams make a funny video, some took a more serious turn this year, and some are lazy and don't even make one. I want to take a look at all 32 teams' schedule release and see which ones I enjoyed the most.
32) Kansas City Chiefs
Power move by the Chiefs. Other than this 45-minute schedule release show, the only thing Kansas City posted was a picture of the schedule. All 31 of the other teams made a video or made some sort of social media spectacle, but the defending champs don't even care about who they play apparently. 0/10
31) New Orleans Saints
30) Seattle Seahawks
These two aren't even technically a schedule release, but this is what they posted to social media. Neither of these teams posted their schedules in the videos, instead, they just posted pictures of the schedule in a separate tweet. These videos are so heartwarming and show how much good comes from sports and it's not just a silly game. Unfortunately, I am ranking the best schedule releases though so these didn't really accomplish that. .5/10
29) Arizona Cardinals
Arizona released their schedule on twitter through a series of GIFs. Un-Original and lazy from a team who has a lot to hype up this year. 1/10
28) Los Angeles Rams
The new SoFi Stadium is set to open up this season so the Rams thought it would be a good idea to feature the jumbotron to release the schedule. Well, they were wrong featuring the whole stadium to give us a virtual tour would have been a better idea. 1.5/10
27) Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders first season in Las Vegas and THAT'S the schedule release video we get? I don't know why I was expecting anything less from the Raiders organization, but I expected an inaugural season in a place like Vegas would mean everything would be a show. 2/10
26) New York Giants
I understand these videos aren't easy to make, but you're an organization that's valued at over $3B so you gotta give me something better than this. The signs were just computer paper and sharpie. 2/10
25) Washington Redskins
Quick video featuring players, cheerleaders, and fans showing off the Redskins schedule. Nothing unique or exciting about this video, much like a Redskins game. 2/10
24) Indianapolis Colts
The Colts featured videos of different players giving us week by week matchups. Simple, Plain, Boring. 2/10
23) Pittsburgh Steelers
Just a traditional preseason hype video that also features the schedule. Not very creative, but it definitely gets you amped for football season. 2.5/10
22) Buffalo Bills
21) Cleveland Browns
20) Dallas Cowboys
Shoutout to all of the frontline workers during this crazy time. Risking their health and well-being for us to help flatten the curve. With that being said these people need hazard pay, time off for a mental health break after this pandemic is over, and lots of other things other than giving a few of them 15 seconds of fame during your schedule release. Plus multiple teams did this which was the clear and easy route this year. 3/10
19) New England Patriots
New England used Billicheck's dog, Nike, who stole the show on NFL Draft night and used him in a video conference call. It was a very timely release video because everyone is using those video chats right now but it was very quiet and the jokes in the comments weren't all that funny. 3.5/10
18) New York Jets
A fun short little video with animated sketch drawings. It was fun to watch, but at times, it was so quick I didn't have time to understand exactly what point they were trying to make with the drawing. It was unique, but it wasn't anything outstanding. 4/10
17) Houston Texans
Houston asked a few children to help draw pictures for each week's matchup and posted them all on the fridge. The idea of using kids was great cause kids are hilarious, but the pictures were just outlines the kids had to color in, and THAT is where they went wrong. The pictures would have been a lot better if they just asked for a picture showing the matchup and let the kids' imaginations run wild. 4.5/10
16) Cincinnati Bengals
First off, why is Rick Astley in this video? After you get over that initial question, it's a pretty cool video starring Joe Burrow and his victory cigars. Overall though, nothing stands out about this video compared to most of the other ones. 4.5/10
15) Los Angeles Chargers
Although the Chargers also had frontline workers announce their schedule they get a little bit of a boost because they tugged at our heartstrings before the schedule release portion. 4.5/10
14) Denver Broncos
The infamous intro to Full House was used to release the Broncos schedule. The idea was unoriginal, but its always still a little humorous especially when you feature Melvin Gordon moving boxes the week they play the Chargers. 5/10
13) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buccaneers reporter, Casey Phillips, hosts a few of the players on a game show where the guess the team based off hints. At first, I wasn't a fan because they weren't even releasing the teams in the same order as the schedule, but who doesn't love a little trivia. After a little while, I just found myself trying to guess the team before the players. 5/10
12) Green Bay Packers
The Packers' video was coined as an at-home production and it features a bunch of items that you might find around the house that resembles their opponents. Nothing too crazy about this one, but it was still a video that was fun to watch to see what items matched up with which matchup. 5.5/10
11) Chicago Bears
This video was produced by Cole Bennett/Lyrical Lemonade who is a very talented music video producer based in Chicago. This video was interesting, to say the least, but don't take it from me take it from the YouTube comments.
"Okay, who @chicagobears let their child animate the schedule release?"
"The General insurance company wants their ad back."
"This is possible the worst video I have ever seen like lmao wth is wrong with the animation this is so bad its funny"
Sometimes terrible works though, and in this case, I think it kinda does. 6/10
10) Detroit Lions
Any Planet Earth fans out there? This is the NFL schedule release for you. At over 8 minutes long, it's by far the longest video and you can tell they put a lot of work into this one. It might be a little slow at times, but it's exactly what they were going for. 6.5/10
9) Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons went with a more futuristic look in their video. It featured the new uniforms as well as the normal matchup information. It was a fun video, but the only video I found from the team highlights 7 of the 16 games. I wish they would have featured all 16 weeks. 6.5/10
8) Philadelphia Eagles
Swoop the mascot stars in this video where he is scrolling through Netflix trying to decide on something to watch. It's pretty entertaining although similar to some others. 7/10
7) Miami Dolphins
Miami had someone channel surfing to see what shows were on. Something small and easy, but it was still fun to see what would come next. Not extremely creative, but it was still a good watch. 7/10
6) Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore put together a game show highlight real featuring not only their upcoming schedule but also their ridiculous record-breaking stats from last year. This video was just as much fun to watch as the Ravens offense last season. 8/10
5) Tennessee Titans
In this video, Titan Man takes on 16 opponents to climb the Great Mount Olympus. It has fun animations and is extremely creative. Definitely one of the best videos this year. 8.5/10
4) Minnesota Vikings
I thought this was an extremely entertaining video. It was interesting to see how the teams are given their schedules (or at least they do a good job making it seem this is how they release it to each team). They paired that video conference call with highlights and funny videos, which makes for a great video. 8.5/10
3) Carolina Panthers
A day in the life of.... everyone right now. The Panthers went the quarantine route and featured their schedule using tons of today's pop culture like Joe Exotic, Tik Tok, The Last Dance Documentary, Animal Crossing, and more. 9/10
2) San Francisco 49ers
A spinoff of the Westworld intro and they went all-in on this release video. I have so many questions about this... who made this video? Why are they working for the Niners and not in Hollywood? How long have they had their schedule to be able to make this? What were the other teams doing with their time? Did the Chiefs decide not to release a video after seeing how amazing this one was? I can't say I exactly understood all of the opponents at first, but that video was so amazing it left me feeling like it was my fault for not understanding. 9.5/10
1) Jacksonville Jaguars
Nothing short of a masterpiece. Even if you don't like cats, everyone loves cat videos and the jaguars capitalized on that. After I watched it I realized I didn't even pay attention to the opponents cause the video was so great. 10/10