One month into the 2025 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers are both 3-1 and easily identifiable as top NFC playoff contenders. The NFL recognized as much on Monday when it elected to put the Week Six showdown between the Buccaneers and 49ers in front of a larger television audience.
The league announced Monday that the Tampa Bay-San Francisco game, presented by Novartis, at Raymond James on Sunday, October 12 has been flexed to the late afternoon slot The game was originally scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. ET but will now kickoff at 4:25 p.m. ET. In a corresponding scheduling change, the New England Patriots game at New Orleans that Sunday will be moved from 4:25 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers meeting is also scheduled to kickoff at 4:25 and is remaining in that time slot.
The NFL first introduced flex scheduling in 2006 as a way to allow teams to play their way into time slots with larger audiences. In 2025, the flex scheduling option began in Week Five and can be utilized through Week 17. In Weeks 5-13, scheduling changes must be announced at least 12 days prior to the date of the games being moved.