2014 NFL Season
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| 2014 National Football League season | |||
| Regular season | |||
| Duration | September 4-December 28, 2014 | ||
| Playoffs | |||
| Start date | January 3, 2015 | ||
| Super Bowl XLIX | |||
| Date | February 1, 2015 | ||
| Site | University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona | ||
| Pro Brawl | |||
| Date | Early 2015 | ||
| Site | Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii | ||
| National Football League seasons | |||
| |||
The 2014 NFL season, the 95th regular season of the National Football League is tentatively set to begin Thursday, September 4, 2014, with the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks hosting in the annual kickoff game. The season will end with Super Bowl XLIX, the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 1, 2015, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Contents |
Schedule
The schedules for all 32 teams will be released on April 17, 2014. The 2014 NFL Draft will be held from May 8–10, 2014 in New York City. The draft's traditional timeframe in late April will not be available in 2014 due to a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall, the site of which the draft has been held since 2006. The NFL plans to continue holding the draft in May in future years as part of a permanent offseason calendar change.
Under the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups will be:
Intraconference
Interconference
Highlights of the 2014 schedule include:
- NFL Kickoff Game: The 2014 season tentatively will begin on Thursday, September 4, 2014, starting at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT) on NBC, at CenturyLink Field, the home of the defending Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks' opponent in Super Bowl XLVIII — the Denver Broncos — are a potential opponent, as are the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers. (The other possibilities are the Arizona Cardinals, St. Louis Rams, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and the Oakland Raiders.) Only once has a Super Bowl rematch from the previous season been contested in the opening week of the following season, and that occurred in 1970, when the Minnesota Vikings avenged their loss in Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs.
- Unlike the 2013 season, where the Baltimore Ravens ran into a conflict with an already-scheduled Baltimore Orioles' Major League Baseball game (which forced the Ravens to open the season on the road, due to the Ravens and Orioles sharing the same parking lot for their respective stadiums), the Seahawks' baseball counterparts — the Seattle Mariners, will be playing on the road on September 4, assuring no event conflicts (the Seahawks' and Mariners' respective stadiums, CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field, also share the same parking lot).
- International Series: Three games will be played at Wembley Stadium in London, England in 2014. The Oakland Raiders will play host to the Miami Dolphins on September 28 at 1:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. local time), the Atlanta Falcons will host the Detroit Lions on October 26 at 9:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local time), and the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Dallas Cowboys on November 9 at 1:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. local time), in the second of four consecutive appearances for the Jaguars in the International Series. CBS will televise the Dolphins–Raiders game, while Fox will televise the Cowboys–Jaguars and Lions–Falcons contests.
- Thanksgiving Day games: These games will occur on Thursday, November 27, 2014. The Detroit Lions will host an AFC team — either the Buffalo Bills or the Miami Dolphins — at 12:30 p.m. ET, and will air on CBS, while the Dallas Cowboys will host an NFC team (the possibilities are the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers or the New Orleans Saints) at 4:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. CT), and will air on Fox. The prime-time NBC game, featuring opponents yet to be announced, will be featured at 8:30 p.m. ET. However, under the new 2014 rules, the Lions or Cowboys could have their game moved to NBC if needed, and if that is a Lions' game, CBS could hold an AFC vs. AFC game in the Eastern time zone or an AFC at NFC game in said time zone.
- Bills Toronto Series: In 2012, the Buffalo Bills received a five-year extension to play one game per season at the Rogers Centre in Toronto through 2017. The Bills' opponent will be announced later in the spring.
- Christmas: Christmas lands on the Thursday of Week 17 during the 2014 season. As the NFL generally schedules all of its Week 17 contests on Sunday (December 28), a Christmas game is not expected to be part of the 2014 schedule. During the 2008 season, in which Christmas also fell on a Thursday, no Christmas games were played.
- Playoffs: The last regular season games will be held on Sunday, December 28. The playoffs are then scheduled to start on Saturday, January 3, 2015. Conference championship games will be held on Sunday, January 18; the NFC Championship will be played at 3:00 p.m. ET on Fox, and the AFC Championship will follow at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS. Super Bowl XLIX, the league's championship game will occur on February 1 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and will be televised by NBC with kickoff around 6:30 p.m. ET.
The opponents for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game will be announced sometime in the spring, while the entire 2014 regular season schedule will be announced in April.
Media
Stadiums
Coaching changes
Preseason
| Team: | 2013 head coach: at start of season | 2013 interim head coach: | 2014 replacement: | Reason for leaving: | Story/Accomplishments: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston Texans | Gary Kubiak | Wade Phillips | Bill O'Brien | Fired | Kubiak was fired on December 6, 2013, after accumulating a 61–63 record in just under eight seasons as the Texans' head coach. Wade Phillips was named the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2013 season. Kubiak joined the Baltimore Ravens as offensive coordinator. O'Brien spent the past two seasons as the Penn State head coach and also served as a New England Patriots assistant. |
| Cleveland Browns | Rob Chudzinski | Mike Pettine | Chudzinski was fired on December 29, 2013, after going 4–12 in his only season as Browns head coach. Pettine was the Buffalo Bills' defensive coordinator last season. | ||
| Detroit Lions | Jim Schwartz | Jim Caldwell | Schwartz was fired on December 30, 2013 after a 1–6 stumble to end the 2013 season despite having led the NFC North earlier in the season. He finished with a 29–51 record over five seasons. Schwartz joined the Buffalo Bills as defensive coordinator. Caldwell was hired as head coach on January 14. He previously was head coach for the Indianapolis Colts from 2009–2011 and finished with a 26–22 record. For the last year and a half, he was the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. | ||
| Minnesota Vikings | Leslie Frazier | Mike Zimmer | Frazier was fired on December 30, 2013 after more than three seasons as Vikings head coach, ending 2013 with a 5–10–1 record, and his tenure with Minnesota at 21–32–1. Frazier joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as defensive coordinator. Zimmer was hired on January 15 and this is his first head-coaching position. He had been the defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals since 2008. He was also the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and the Dallas Cowboys from 2000 to 2006. | ||
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Greg Schiano | Lovie Smith | Schiano and GM Mark Dominik were fired on December 30, 2013. Schiano was 11–21 as head coach over two seasons. Smith, a former Buccaneers assistant, served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears from 2004–2012. | ||
| Tennessee Titans | Mike Munchak | Ken Whisenhunt | Munchak was fired on January 4, 2014 after three seasons as Titans head coach, ending his 32-season tenure with the team. He was 22–26 as head coach. Munchak joined the Pittsburgh Steelers as offensive line coach. Whisenhunt was previously the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2007 to 2012, compiling a record of 45–51, and served as the offensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers in 2013. | ||
| Washington Redskins | Mike Shanahan | Jay Gruden | Shanahan and his staff were fired on December 30, 2013 after a 3–13 record in 2013, and a 24–40 career regular season record with the Redskins. Gruden, who had spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals, had previously served as head coach of the Florida Tuskers of the UFL and Orlando Predators of the AFL. | ||
