Week 15 NFLN Saturday tripleheader to feature Colts-Vikings, Ravens-Browns, Dolphins-Bills

The flex of the Washington Commanders–New York Giants (Sunday, Dec. 18) game to Sunday Night Football isn’t the only change to the Week 15 schedule the NFL announced Monday. The league also revealed the tripleheader of games set for NFL Network that day: Indianapolis Colts–Minnesota Vikings (1 p.m. ET), Baltimore Ravens–Cleveland Browns (4:30 p.m. ET), and Miami Dolphins–Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m. ET):

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1599835433214435328

At the start of the season, five Week 15 games didn’t have a set time that Sunday thanks to the option to move them to Saturday. Those include the aforementioned three, Giants-Commanders, and the Atlanta Falcons against the New Orleans Saints. The currently 5-8 Falcons against the currently 4-8 Saints matchup is an understandable one not to pick for a national slot; it will air at 1 p.m. Eastern that Sunday. (That does have some potential playoff implications, though, as the Falcons and Saints are not out of the running in the NFC South, currently led by the 5-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)

Of course, not all of these selected matchups are golden either. But they look to be maybe a little better. The Colts are 4-8-1, but at least that game might matter for the 10-2 Vikings in terms of playoff seeding. The Browns are 5-7, but the Ravens are 8-4 and tied for the AFC North lead. And the primetime Dolphins-Bills game (those teams are seen above in a Sept. 25 game, which the Dolphins won 21-19) features divisional rivals who are currently #2 and #1 in the AFC East, at 8-4 and 9-3 respectively. Meanwhile, the 7-5-1 Commanders and 7-4-1 Giants aren’t necessarily great, but their matchup carries a lot of wild-card playoff implications. So it makes sense that the Falcons and Saints was the matchup not chosen here.

[CBS Sports; photo from Jim Rassol/The Palm Beach Post]