The potential flex games between Week 5 and Week 10 come with a stipulation. The NFL can't change the tentative Sunday Night Football game every week. The league can flex up to two games total into Sunday night between Weeks 5-10. The rest of the flexible schedule procedures from previous years remains intact. After Week 11, the NFL can flex any Sunday night game.
As before, only Sunday afternoon games are subject to being moved into the Sunday night window. Thursday, Saturday, and Monday games are not affected. Flex scheduling allows the league to handpick a game to be moved into the Sunday Night NBC window, avoiding lackluster matchups.
The procedure to decide on flex scheduling remains the same. The NFL will decide to flex games after consultation with the television networks. The announcement will come no later than 12 days prior to the Sunday night game for Weeks 5-16. There is no tentative Sunday night game scheduled for Week 17, as usual. The league has to announce the final Sunday schedule with at least six days notice.