The Jacksonville Jaguars will play twice in London in 2023 — a first for an NFL team — and the Miami Dolphins will face the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in a marquee matchup of the NFL international games announced Wednesday by the league.
The Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts were added to the list of teams playing outside the United States next season, joining the Jaguars, Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots, who were previously announced as home teams in European games.
The international slate will kick off in London with a Week 4 clash between the Falcons and Jaguars on Oct. 1 at Wembley Stadium that will air exclusively on ESPN+. The Jaguars will play their second game in London a week later when they take on the Bills on Oct. 8 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Titans and Ravens will play the final London game on the schedule on Oct. 15 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. This marks the Ravens’ second international game after getting blown out by the Jaguars 44-7 in 2017, which tied the largest defeat in team history.
“We have staged games in London since 2007, with interest and momentum in the sport here in the U.K. rising year on year, and look forward to giving fans the best NFL experience yet in 2023,” NFL U.K. general manager Henry Hodgson said.
Germany will host the remaining two NFL games in Europe: a Week 9 meeting between the Dolphins and Chiefs on Nov. 5 and a matchup between the Colts and Patriots on Nov. 12. Both games will be played at Frankfurt Stadium.
The Dolphins-Chiefs matchup means Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill‘s first meeting with his former team will take place in Europe rather than in Kansas City, where he played the first six years of his NFL career before being traded last offseason.
It will be the first time the NFL has staged multiple games in Germany, which hosted its first regular-season game last season, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earning a 21-16 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The five European games, which all begin at 9:30 a.m. ET, mark the most the NFL has scheduled in a single season.
“We are also pleased to confirm that the two games in Germany will be played in Frankfurt, a city steeped in NFL heritage,” said Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president, club business, major events and international. “We look forward to staging both games at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Stadium, building on the incredible atmosphere experienced at last season’s game in Munich.”
There will be no international game in Mexico in 2023 because of the renovations taking place at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Along with the five international games, other contests announced Wednesday for the upcoming season are the Dolphins at the New York Jets on Nov. 24 in the NFL’s first Black Friday game, the New York Giants at the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, Dec. 25, and the Cincinnati Bengals at the Chiefs on Sunday, Dec. 31.
The full 2023 NFL schedule will be released Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
The Jaguars previously planned to play two home games at Wembley in 2020, but those contests were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Jaguars are in the second year of a three-year contract — approved by the NFL in March 2022 — to host games at Wembley Stadium. The deal gives the Jaguars full responsibility for the games and allows the franchise to keep all revenue.
Information from ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg, Michael DiRocco and Jamison Hensley was used in this report.
Source: www.espn.com