Among the attractions of Wednesday night’s schedule release was the chance to see when some of this year’s marquee matchups would take place.
We learned Tom Brady will return to New England in Week 4, that Matthew Stafford will face off with Jared Goff in Week 7 after the offseason trade featuring both players, and that the Packers will be at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday afternoon in Week 9. That game was circled by many early in the offseason, although the reason to watch where it landed changed a bit the last couple of weeks.
Aaron Rodgers’ future in Green Bay is now up in the air, which made the league’s handling of such a big game something of interest. If No. 12 was sure to be across from Patrick Mahomes, it might have been a primetime game but the prospect of Rodgers not being there didn’t factor into Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s look at the schedule.
“We’ve got some good quarterback matchups, that being one of them,” Reid said on NFL Network. “Rodgers is gonna go down as one of the all-time best ever. And I know those two have a relationship, they do those commercials together. So, there’ll be that nice competition between those two and obviously, they’ve got a bunch of good players. So, we’ll have to be ready for that one.”
The Broncos and Raiders have both been mentioned as potential landing spots for Rodgers if he is traded. If that’s the case, Rodgers-Mahomes would happen twice this year instead of once.