NFL flexes Bears-Packers out of afternoon slot in Week 5

The NFL has seen enough to know it doesn’t want the Week 5 game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers in a prime TV time slot.

The league announced Tuesday that it was flexing that Oct. 11 NFC North showdown out of its coveted 4:25 p.m. slot, moving the Bears-Packers game to 1 p.m. ET. The game, which will be played at Lambeau Field, will remain on Fox.

This was the only game the NFL moved in Week 5, leaving Fox with an afternoon doubleheader that Sunday: The Detroit Lions (2-1) at the Arizona Cardinals (1-2) and the San Francisco 49ers (3-0) at the Seattle Seahawks (2-1). By clearing out the Bears-Packers game, it likely allows the 49ers-Seahawks game to become Fox’s national broadcast.

It’s understandible why the league would want to bury the Packers in the early time slot. The 1-2 squad is coming off an embarrassment against the Atlanta Falcons on TNF and appears to be an albatross around the league’s neck with six standalone national television broadcasts remaining on the schedule.

The Bears, meanwhile, could still be without quarterback Caleb Williams, robbing this game of some star power to offset the Packers’ putridity.

Before the season started, it was unthinkable that a Bears-Packers game might not be worthy of a national time slot, but that’s the nature of the NFL and how unknowable each season is, especially when it comes to knowing which games to highlight.

Week 5 is also the first time the NFL can flex Sunday Night Football, but they’re sticking with the Baltimore Ravens vs. the surprisingly frisky Atlanta Falcons.