The long NFL offseason seems a little more palatable when there's a Week 1 opponent to look forward to.
Each NFL team found out who it will start the 2015 regular season against, and the rest of the schedule too (see the entire schedule here on NFL.com). The opening game of the season will be the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the defending champion New England Patriots on Thursday, Sept. 10 (a favorable break for the Patriots because the Steelers will be without All-Pro running back Le'Veon Bell due to suspension). The first "Sunday Night Football" game of the season, on Sept. 13, will be the New York Giants traveling to face the Dallas Cowboys. As usual, the NFL has a doubleheader scheduled for "Monday Night Football" in Week 1. The Philadelphia Eagles, one of the most interesting teams this season after a flurry of offseason moves, play at the Atlanta Falcons in the first game. The San Francisco 49ers will host the late Monday night game against the Minnesota Vikings and Adrian Peterson ... if Peterson is still with the Vikings.
The NFL decided to go with three NFC vs. NFC games on Thanksgiving for the second straight season. The Eagles kick it off at the Detroit Lions, the Carolina Panthers will play at the Dallas Cowboys, and the third Thanksgiving game will be the Chicago Bears at the Green Bay Packers. That will be the Packers' first home Thanksgiving game since playing the Hammond Pros in 1923.
There will be rematches of each conference championship game from last season, and each rematch will be on "Sunday Night Football." On Sept. 20, the Green Bay Packers will host the Seattle Seahawks on NBC, which is one of the most interesting games on the entire regular-season schedule. The New England Patriots will play at the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 18 in a prime-time game.
There was also a welcomed change for the Denver Broncos in this year's schedule. For years, a CBS conflict with the U.S. Open tennis tournament prevented the Broncos from opening the season at home in their usual late-afternoon slot. The U.S. Open is moving to ESPN this year. So the Broncos will open the regular season at home against the Baltimore Ravens in the late-afternoon time slot, in one of the best games of Week 1.
The NFL's regular-season schedule release has become a big day on the sports calendar, in many ways overshadowing the NBA and NHL playoffs. The schedule release was covered with two hours of programming on ESPN's networks, and there was a three-hour schedule release show scheduled for NFL Network.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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