Broncos get another prime-time game with Thursday night flex
Nov 22, 2024, 9:29 AM | Updated: 9:36 am
The Denver Broncos will have to get used to being prime-time players in December.
The NFL chose to use its first-ever Thursday night flex on the Broncos, shifting their Dec. 22 game at the Los Angeles Chargers to Dec. 19, giving the Broncos a third prime-time game this season. It will also be the Broncos’ second TNF game this season, alongside their 33-10 win over New Orleans in Week 7.
Kickoff will be at 6:15 p.m. MST. The game will be broadcast on Amazon Prime, but it will also see an over-the-air option in both the Denver and Los Angeles television markets.
The team already had a prime-time game to begin the month, facing the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football on Dec. 2 at Empower Field at Mile High. There were rumblings the NFL might flex out of that game given the Browns’ struggles before a Thursday night upset of Pittsburgh, but those never came to pass.
In the case of Week 16 on TNF, it was a Browns game that got flexed to a typical Sunday start. The NFL opted to jettison the Browns’ game with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Coincidentally. the Bengals are Denver’s opponent the following week in a game that has not had its start time officially finalized. Broncos at Bengals is one of five contests in Week 17 eligible to be played on Saturday, Dec. 28. Denver had a similar situation in the 2023 season with a December game at Detroit; it landed in a Saturday night slot as both teams were in the thick of the playoff race.
Should the Broncos-Bengals game take place on Saturday, Dec. 28, the Broncos would have three of their four December games in national-TV windows.
It comes with the territory of being in the postseason conversation. There’s plenty of chatter about the Broncos’ improvement and the growth of rookie QB Bo Nix. Now the nation is about to get a recurring, first-hand look at the Oregon product’s palpable progress.
