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The Possibility Of No Primetime Games For Cardinals

Thursday night changes for Amazon could impact schedule

Whenever the schedule comes out each year, there are a handful of main things everyone looks for, one of which being the primetime games.

Ever since the Thursday night games were introduced, that meant each team would have at least one, because every team was required to appear on Thursday night. But those rules have been tweaked, because Amazon has paid a lot of money for the Thursday night package and they want to make sure they get good matchup/teams just like the Sunday night/Monday night games try to get.

Peter King, in his "Football Morning In America" column this week, notes that the change to allow teams to have two Thursday appearances now instead of one very well could mean some teams don't play on Thursday. Specifically, King wrote, "Arizona might be left out this year, and maybe Tampa Bay or Houston."

With Kyler Murray's status unknown in terms of when he might come back, it's understandable. There is little question the national expectations of the Cardinals is very low. It's hard to see the Cardinals not getting a Thursday game but showing up on a Sunday or a Monday night. So could that mean the Cardinals not having a primetime game at all?

The last time the Cardinals had an entire season without a primetime game was the 2011 season. They didn't have one in 2003 or 2004, but otherwise every year in this century has provided at least one. Last season, the Cardinals played on Thursday (Saints), Sunday night (Bucs) and Monday twice (49ers in Mexico and Patriots.)

We'll see how it plays out when the schedule is announced. Multiple reports have it potentially being this Thursday, May 11, but King also noted in his column it could be delayed a week as the NFL continues to finalize some aspects of the when (we know the who and where) of this year's matchups. UPDATE: It will indeed be Thursday, May 11, at 5 p.m. Arizona time. 8 p.m. ET.

Arizona Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson (34) during the 2022 regular season game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022 in Glendale, AZ.
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