Don’t act like you’re surprised.

The Tennessee Titans are not scheduled to play a game in primetime during the 2025 NFL season, a bit of a disappointment given the hype and hope surrounding No. 1 draft pick Cam Ward. The Titans are one of just three teams that isn’t scheduled to play at night in 2025, and one of two teams without an exclusive TV window including games played on holidays and overseas.

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This continues a long-running trend for the Titans’ organization that predates Ward, coach Brian Callahan and just about everyone involved with the franchise. Nissan Stadium hasn’t hosted a “Sunday Night Football” game since 2018, a “Monday Night Football” game since 2021 or a “Thursday Night Football” game since 2021. And even those stats are a little misleading. The Titans played their “SNF” game in 2018 thanks to the NFL’s flex scheduling — which gives teams having a surprisingly good season a chance to play their way onto primetime — they haven’t been initially scheduled to host a “Sunday Night Football” game, the NFL’s highest-profile time slot, since 2009.

The lack of appearances in NFL primetime contests doesn’t just feel out of place. Look at the past 10 years of NFL data, and it’s easy to see the Titans have been less likely to get primetime placements, even when the team competed among the league’s best.

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Tennessee Titans primetime games: The data isn’t good

From 2015-24, the Titans played 24 games in primetime, posting a 12-12 record. Only Atlanta, Cleveland, Carolina and Jacksonville played fewer marquee games than the Titans in that span. Based on the 2025 schedules as announced, the Falcons will leapfrog ahead of the Titans by season’s end and push the Titans into 29th place since 2015.

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While Cleveland, Jacksonville and Carolina all rank in the bottom six among NFL teams in wins since 2015, the Titans rank in the middle of the pack, 17th in the league in wins over that time.

Four teams have played in primetime twice as often as the Titans in the last decade: Green Bay, Kansas City, Dallas and Philadelphia.

Tennessee Titans home primetime games: The data is even worse

When you extend the argument to only primetime games played in a team’s home stadium, the Titans are even worse off by comparison. The Titans have played only nine primetime games at Nissan Stadium since 2015, tied for the second-fewest in the league.

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In 2024, the Titans were one of just five teams that didn’t host an exclusive-window game on a Thursday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday primetime, along with the Patriots, Colts, Jaguars and Panthers. All four of those teams hosted at least one such game in 2023 while the Titans didn’t, meaning the Titans are the only team in the NFL that hasn’t hosted a primetime contest since 2022.

The Titans haven’t been a marquee NFL organization in the past two seasons, so the lack of home primetime contests since 2023 isn’t a huge surprise. But think of things this way: During Derrick Henry’s eight-year career with the Titans, Nissan Stadium hosted seven regular-season primetime games. Through all the ups and all the downs, the one consistent thing is the Titans were most often playing their games on Sundays at noon.

Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 14, vs. Los Angeles Rams, noon CT, CBS

Week 4: Sunday, Sept. 28, at Houston Texans, noon CT, CBS

Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 19, vs. New England Patriots, noon CT, CBS

Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 16, vs. Houston Texans, noon CT, FOX

Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 7, at Cleveland Browns, noon CT, FOX

Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 14, at San Francisco 49ers, 3:25 p.m. CT, FOX

Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 21, vs. Kansas City Chiefs, noon CT, CBS

Week 18: TBD, at Jacksonville Jaguars, time and network TBD

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans almost never play in primetime. Where team ranks in NFL