Patriots make history as the first team to have a game flexed out of MNF

As the 2023 season heads into the home stretch, there was a lot of speculation about whether the Patriots would have any games flexed out of their primetime schedules. After their upcoming Week 12 game against the Chargers, they were set to have three consecutive games in the coveted time slot, but that appears to have changed as of Thursday afternoon.

There were some hoops the NFL would have to jump through to flex two of the games, as one was Thursday Night and another was Monday Night, both of which are not commonly flexed.

However, because the Patriots are great at making history, the league decided to flex the first Monday Night Football game ever, moving the Chiefs vs. Patriots in Week 15 from December 18 to December 17 at 1 pm.

Besides the fact that this has never been done before, it's the ultimate demonstration of how far the Patriots have fallen in recent years. Typically, watching New England in primetime was standard, and some even felt more of their games should have been nationally televised. Now they're at a point where even their fans don't want to watch them, never mind everyone else.

What will make matters more interesting is if this is just the start of the flexed games. Since Thursday Night games are more difficult to move, it wouldn't be surprising to see their Week 16 matchup with the Broncos moved from Sunday Night Football.

It was called the Tank Bowl at the start of the season since both teams were playing poorly. But now that the Broncos have seemingly hit their stride and the Patriots are far from it, perhaps it would be best to switch it with a more competitive game with postseason implications.

That seems like the more likely route the league will take, but we'll have to wait and see at this point.

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