The 2017 NFL schedule was announced tonight. You can see the Ravens schedule here. Our writers react to the slate of games here:
Tony Lombardi
For all of those who consistently think the NFL is out to screw the Ravens, there’s the 2017 schedule. It’s fair, it’s balanced, it spaces out travel, John Harbaugh got his MNF game and delayed bye, and the last two games are at home. Best of all, WE DON’T HAVE TO GO TO CINCINNATI TO CLOSE THE SEASON!
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
Brian Bower
On paper the Ravens 2017 schedule certainly looks tougher, now that the dates and times are known. With division foes to open and to close the season, the Ravens must start and finish strong. Their Week 10 bye is appealing and will be much needed with road match-ups both before and after their week off.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the schedule release is that the team will host their first Monday Night Football game since 2012. Harbaugh and company will have their work cut out for them in the weeks ahead.
Joe Polek
The Ravens got what they wanted with their bye week in the middle of the season, instead of after their trip to Wembley. They also have an interesting pattern in their first nine games: away, home, away, home. Then, it starts a double pattern: two away, two home. They also only have to go west once (as well as to London). Three prime time games, and one early morning game.
Overall, this is the most balanced Ravens schedule that I can ever remember. Nothing really to complain about, as they got the Bye Week request they wanted and they also host a Monday Night football game.
Now that we can’t complain about the schedule, it’s time to build this team through the draft and get moving through OTAs.
Derek Arnold
My biggest problem with the schedule in recent years has been the bunching up of the Pittsburgh games. Sometimes, the Ravens are done with Cleveland before they play the Steelers once…dumb. That was remedied this year. Division games go: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh in Weeks 1, 2, and 4, then Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati in Weeks 14, 15, 17. Not being forced to finish up in Cincinnati yet again is nice as well, but you know what would be even nicer? If the Ravens could finish with Cleveland in Week 17 for once. But nope, the NFL has to make sure Pittsburgh has that Week 17 bye every damn year.
Ok, that’s my bellyachin’. Let’s play some football (after a whole lot more summer and baseball, of course. No rush. I’m not into wishing away my summer like a lot of football fans.)
Adam Bonaccorsi
I’m actually a big fan of the schedule for the Ravens. They got the Week 10 bye as opposed to immediately following their London voyage early in the season, host a home Monday Night Football game for the first time in five years, and end the season with four of their final six games at home.
The toughest two games I see will be at home vs the Steelers following the trip to London, and a road trip immediately following to Oakland for what’s likely to be their last regular season game there (although likely empty feeling like a neutral site).
Overall it’s not a cupcake schedule, but this IS the NFL. It’s not gonna be easy folks, but this is as good as one could hope for!
Ryan Jones
The initial reaction when looking at the Ravens schedule in 2017 is balance. There doesn’t appear to be a daunting stretch of games like they had at the start of 2015, and there aren’t any cake walks like there were at the beginning of 2016 that gifted the Ravens a fast start. The home and road games are balanced well throughout the season as well. On paper, though, they do have the fourth easiest strength of schedule in the first half playing opponents with a .426 win percentage. So getting off to anything worse than a 5-3 start will make a playoff return an uphill climb.
The NFL granted the Ravens request and they won’t have an early bye week following their London game and that’s a big plus. The Monday night game at home is long overdue but the season finale against Cincy again? Pretty lame but at least it’s at home.
Carey Stevenson
I’m surprisingly curious about the opener. The Bengals have had the Ravens’ number defensively over that last few years. Because of the Ravens inability to separate in coverage and sustain a strong running game, the Bengals have pretty much bottled them up. Do the Ravens finally get a separator/game breaker in the draft? What does a Marty Mornhinweg offense look like? Can a new Greg Roman-influenced run game become consistent and effective? All questions I’m curious to see answered right off the bat.
Ken McKusick
Home Thursday and late bye are positives. Big negative playing the Steelers after London then Raiders on short rest. Complaints about who the Ravens play are absolutely futile. That was decided by last season and the regular schedule rotation. It’s all a matter of when.
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