NFL eyeing possible schedule change with Sunday night flex in Week 8, but league doesn't have a lot of options

With Philadelphia and Washington struggling, the league has until Oct. 20 to make a move, but scheduling conflicts across the Week 8 slate leave few viable replacement options

Oct 13, 2026 at 3:20 pm ET • 4 min read

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). 

Breaking down the NFL's options

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: 

• Ravens (4-1) at Bills (4-1), 1 p.m. ET (CBS). This is definitely the best game on the early slate, but the problem for the NFL here is that the Ravens have a Thursday night game in Week 9. The NFL has almost always avoided making a team play on a Sunday night the week before a Thursday game, so this option is likely out. 
• Colts (2-3) at Jaguars (4-1), 1 p.m. ET (CBS). These are currently the top two teams in the AFC South, but this game runs into the same issue as Bills-Ravens: The Jaguars will be playing on Thursday night in Week 9 -- against Baltimore -- so the NFL almost certainly won't be flexing them to Sunday night in Week 9. 
• Vikings (5-0) at Lions (3-2), 1 p.m. ET (Fox). With the success of the Vikings this year, this has turned into an unexpectedly attractive game. The NFL likely wouldn't flex this game to Sunday night, though, because the Vikings and Lions are already scheduled to play each other on Sunday night in Week 15. There have been instances where two division rivals play each other twice in primetime, but it would be unheard of for both matchups to be on Sunday night. Also, Fox (NFC) and CBS (AFC) are generally guaranteed to get at least one of the two matchups of each division rivalry, and if this got moved, Fox would lose both Vikings-Lions games. That being said, it's not a lock that each network will get at least one game between two division rivals. Back in 2022, the two games between the Chiefs and Chargers were both held in primetime. 
• Browns (3-2) at Steelers (3-2), 1 p.m. ET (CBS). The Browns were only given one primetime game this year, and due to their early success, this might be the NFL's only chance to give them a Sunday night game. Of course, the one issue here is that these two teams played on Thursday night in Week 4. As we just explained with the Lions-Vikings game, when you have two division rivals, the NFL usually tries to save one of their two matchups for Sunday afternoon. 
• Chiefs (4-0) at Broncos (3-2), 4:25 p.m. ET (CBS). This game runs into the same issue as Browns-Steelers. These two teams have already played a primetime game against each other and that came in Week 1 when Kansas City beat Denver on Monday night. Also, the Chiefs are playing on Sunday night in Week 7 against the Seahawks, so that would give them two Sunday night games in a row. 

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: 

• Titans at Bengals
• Cardinals at Cowboys
• Raiders at Jets
• Falcons at Buccaneers
• Chargers at Rams
• Patriots at Dolphins

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.